Dr. Jonas Attilus, MD, MPH, was born and raised in Haiti. After surviving the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people, he migrated to Mexico as a refugee, where he earned his medical degree from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). He holds a Master of Public Health from Rutgers University and completed his psychiatric residency at the University of Minnesota. He is a board-certified psychiatrist practicing in rural northern Minnesota, where he serves low-income families and Native American communities.
A 2024 FASPE Medical Fellow, he has studied internationally in France, Greece, Germany, and Poland. He writes in Haitian Creole, French, Spanish, and English. Jonas was a 2014 Spanish-language winner of the United Nations’ Many Languages, One World essay contest and is a member of the Minnesota Refugee and Immigrant Writers Group. He is currently working on a memoir about the 2010 earthquake.