Dr. Donn Colby is the HAIVN In-Country Medical Director based in Ho Chi Minh City. He joined the project in October 2004. He also holds a faculty position in the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Dr. Colby has lived in Vietnam since 2001, when he came to the country on a Fulbright research scholarship. Since then, he has worked on numerous HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment projects in Southeast Asia. He also worked in a private internal medicine practice for two years at the Columbia Asia Medical Center in Ho Chi Minh City.

Dr. Colby graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook Medical School and did his internal medicine residency at the University of Washington in Seattle. After residency he worked as an internist at the Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, where he was Medical Director of the Central Urgent Care clinic from 1998 to 2001. After many years in clinical practice, he returned to the University of Washington and completed a Masters in Public Health degree in 2001.

In addition the care and treatment of HIV/AIDS, Dr. Colby has worked on the epidemiology and prevention of HIV infection among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Vietnam and other developing countries. He is currently vice-chair of the MSM Technical Working Group for Vietnam and will become chair of the group in 2007. His has participated in research and training in many Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea.