From the very beginning of her academic career, Rose-Marie Chierci has been deeply committed to assisting people in underserved communities.

Her devotion to social justice and helping those most in need was spurred by an early life experience. Chierici and her family fled Haiti in 1960, just after she graduated from high school, settling in Washington, D.C. Her father, a U.S.-educated agronomist, was exiled by former dictator Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier for being an outspoken proponent for social justice and freedom of the press.

“I always wanted to go back to Haiti,” said Chierici, “but I had to find the right way.”

Chierici didn’t just find her “right way” -- she made it. She is the co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Haiti Outreach-Pwoje Espwa, Haitian Creole for “Project Hope” (H.O.P.E.), where she works with U.S. volunteers and local Haitian residents to improve health, education and economic development opportunities in Borgne.

Borgne, a northern coastal region of Haiti, is home to about 80,000 people. As many as 80 percent of residents are unemployed, and most live on less than $1 a day. Until H.O.P.E, there were virtually no trained teachers or healthcare. The one medical clinic was abandoned.

The Rochester, N.Y.–based H.O.P.E. not only reopened the clinic, but partnered with Haiti’s Ministry of Health to expand it into a 16-bed hospital with 60 employees. It is a hub for outpatient testing, education and treatment of HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and other maladies, and nutrition, prenatal and other care. Residents walk up to 6 hours to receive care.

Vaccination rates in Borgne increased from 0 to 14 percent before 2006 to more than 50 percent in 2010. And the hospital serves 3,000 people per month.

After the 2010 earthquake, H.O.P.E. opened its services to refugees who moved into Borgne. It also collaborated with another organization to fly volunteers into Borgne to assist with the subsequent cholera epidemic.

Chierici’s group has done itwith a volunteer board of directors and volunteers — including approximately 20 former students and alumni — and the community of Borgne. All work is donation- and foundation-driven.

Chierici not only teaches global health issues and Third World development, she’s doing it.

“I believe in not only analyzing social problems but doing something about them,” says Chierici. “I call myself a practicing anthropologist — someone who not only teaches and does research, but whose main purpose is to apply theories to real-life issues.”

Along the way, she has been inspired by students, who have returned to Haiti, gone on to earn medical degrees and higher degrees in anthropology and public health, or become Peace Corps or Americorps volunteers. She has also met some of the most brilliant people out on those dusty back roads, improving their futures.

“It has changed me immeasurably in terms of understanding my own history and looking at the pride people have in their own culture,” says Chierici. “The privilege to be a part of that is amazing.”