Profile: Dr. Jacqueline Gautier

Dr. Jacqueline Gautier is Advisor and Coordinator for Development and Fundraising for NPH Haiti’s St. Damien Pediatric Hospital.

Jacqueline Gautier, M.D., graduated from the Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie, Port au Prince, Haiti in 1981. She specialized in Pediatrics at the Hôpital de l’Université d’Etat d’Haiti from 1982 to 1985. She then spent one year fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Duke University in 1986. Right after, she directed the pediatric department of Albert Schweitzer Hospital in central Haiti for 2 years. She spent the next five years in private practice, while also continuing to serve on the board at Albert Schweitzer. In 2000, she studied hospital administration through a joint program between the French and the Haitian government.

In 1993, she became the first medical director of St. Damien Pediatric Hospital, helping Fr. Rick Frechette, CP, D.O., transition the hospital from a hospice center for dying children to a well-known pediatric hospital for the vulnerable children of Haiti.

With funding from PEPFAR, Dr. Gautier established the HIV/AIDS department of St. Damien in 2005. The multidisciplinary team of this department cares for approximately 500 children receiving life-saving HIV therapy and also offers a program for pregnant women infected with HIV to prevent pediatric AIDS. Today the HIV/AIDS department at St. Damien is a national referral center.

Dr. Gautier taught infectious diseases in pediatrics at the Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie, Université d’Etat d’Haiti. She is a past president for the Société Haitienne de Pédiatrie (for three mandates) and served as an advisor at their executive committee. Dr. Gautier has been leading as the director since April 2012.

Under her leadership and in collaboration with Hôpital Bernard Mevs/Project Medishare and the Université of Notre Dame d’Haiti, St. Damien began its own pediatric residency program in September 2013, helping to train a new generation of pediatricians ready to face the challenges of caring for Haiti’s vulnerable children.

In 2022, having served as Director of St. Damien for 30 years, Dr. Gautier began her new role as Advisor and Coordinator for Development and Fundraising at the hospital, supporting Dr. Pascale Gassant, new National Director, to continue to provide stellar healthcare for the families in Haiti.

Related Information:
• St. Damien Pediatric Hospital Fund
• PROFILE: Fr. Rick Frechette, CP, D.O.