Dr. Shalit was born in New York City and raised in New Jersey and Massachusetts. He went to college at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, then moved to Seattle where he obtained his PhD in Genetics from the University of Washington in 1981. Realizing in his mid-twenties that he wanted to be a physician, he enrolled in the University of Washington Medical School, from which he graduated in 1985. He completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington in 1989. His involvement in HIV care started in the early 1980s while still in medical school. Dr. Shalit is Board Certified by the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of HIV Medicine. He is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and is involved in the training of health professionals students in HIV care and the health care of sexual and gender minorities. He lives on Capitol Hill with his husband and three cats