David Plater

Mount Sinai

David Plater is the Director of Operations and Global Site Development for the Department of Health Systems Design and the Arnhold Institute for Global Health. In this role, David is focused on expanding and strengthening Sinai’s network of global health partners along with the infrastructure and operational supports needed for effective care, research, and education programs in global health. David helps lead core operations for the Department and Institute.

David has nearly 20 years of experience managing international development and global health research programs. Prior to joining Mount Sinai, David served as the Associate Director of Research at Indiana University’s Center for Global Health where he helped build IU’s global health research partnerships and programs with a special emphasis on strengthening the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare’s (AMPATH) research program at Moi University and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Western Kenya. Over the last decade, he has focused on the development and strengthening of effective local institutions and their administrative systems, policies and procedures, training programs, human subjects protections programs, financial administration, laboratory and biobanking infrastructure, and other core infrastructure and facilities to support international research collaborations focused on improving the health of people in resource limited settings. This research infrastructure has supported the development of a broad research network involving partners from more than 20 institutions in North America, Europe, and Africa with more than US$150 million in cumulative research and training awards from the NIH, CDC, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other major sponsors, as well as, more than 800 publications in peer reviewed journals.

David is passionate about building highly effective international partnerships that contribute to improving people’s health in the most challenging settings around the world. His focus on partner development and empowerment began while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa and South Asia. Working in these resource-limited environments, David has focused on developing enduring counterpart relationships focused on expanding the capacity of local partner institutions and administrative systems that deliver aid, healthcare, and other services to clients in underserved areas of the world. After returning from the Peace Corps, David coordinated and evaluated major international initiatives and strategic partnerships focused on health, hunger, water and sanitation, and education for Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation. In these roles, David sought to bridge the gap between research and the strategies used by international development organizations to implement effective programs.