Dr. Izurieta received his MD from the Central University of Ecuador and after graduation, carried out his postdoctoral training in Public Health and Tropical Diseases. In 1991, he faced the cholera epidemic that spread through Latin American countries as National Director of the Cholera Control Program in the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador. In 1997, he was appointed Chief of the Department of Epidemiology and Director of The Vaccine Center of the Armed Forces of Ecuador. During his studies, he has been a USAID Thomas Jefferson Fellow, a PAHO Research Fellow, a Gorgas Memorial Institute Fellow, and a FUNDACYT Fellow. In 2003, Dr. Izurieta was elected Vice President of the Gorgas Memorial Institute of Tropical and Preventive Medicine. To date, Dr. Izurieta still holds this appointment.

Dr. Izurieta is currently the director of the Donald Price Parasitology Center.  In addition, he is a consultant for WASTE International from the Netherlands and for the Stockholm Environment Institute from Sweden.