Jim Reimer

Director, Haiti Salt Project

Jim Reimer is the Director of the University of Notre Dame’s Haiti Salt Project. Since 2012, he and his team have developed and implemented a social-enterprise model using fortified salt to prevent lymphatic filariasis (LF) and iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) in Haiti. Working with the Congregation de Sainte Croix, the Haitian Ministry of Health, Cargill Salt, and other entities, the Haiti Salt Project processes, markets, and distributes fortified-salt in the retail, foodservice, and food-processing markets of Haiti. In addition, the team has developed specialty salts and services for the industrial salt market that enable HSP to be a self-sustaining entity. As a result, HSP has become a leader in the effort against LF and IDD in Haiti, having developed a novel approach using business practices to help achieve healthcare objectives.

Before joining the HSP team, Jim worked for Cargill, Inc. in a variety of leadership roles in North and South America and Southeast Asia. Before leaving Cargill, he oversaw Cargill's support of HSP's initial research of fortified salt. Jim has also served as a thesis advisor within the Notre Dame ESTEEM Program and as a liaison with HSP's internal and external stakeholders.

Jim holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Nebraska, and an executive program certificate from the University of Michigan's School of Business. He is fluent in Spanish. Jim is based in Grosse Pointe, Michigan where he resides with his wife, Portia.Before joining the HSP team, Fr. Michelet held a variety of ministry roles within CSC in Haiti, Italy, and the United States. These roles included leading the Parish-Twinning Project with St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Naperville, IL; acting as the director of St. Thomas the Apostle College in Duchity-Pestel; and serving as the director of development for CSC Haiti.