Born and bred in New South Wales, Australia, Colin Butler became interested in global public health even before he started medical school and went on to combine clinical practice with public health work. “I had the idealistic/naive aspiration to improve health, especially in developing countries,” he says. As part of a plan to realize this goal, Butler, who describes himself as an “activist for sustainable public health,” cofounded the Benevolent Organisation for Development, Health and Insight (BODHI) in 1989. This Buddhist-inspired group has projects in seven Asian countries, one of which is devoted to improving the skills of unqualified rural teachers in very poor schools in Uttar Pradesh, India. “I think, with a critical mass of education, people can release sufficient social forces to then help themselves.” In "An Evolving Science for an Evolving Time" Butler offers his views about the role epidemiologists must play in improving global public health ...
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