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Committee and Staff Biographical Sketches
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Lawrence Gostin, J.D., L.L.D. (Chair), is Distinguished University Professor, the highest academic rank at Georgetown University, where he directs the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law and also the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. He has worked at the intersection of law, national and global health, and ethics and had deep engagement with major novel infectious disease outbreaks, including SARS, Ebola, Zika, influenza H1N1, and COVID-19. In 2016, Gostin received the Adam Yarmolinsky Medal from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) for “distinguished service by a Member who, over a significant period of time, has contributed in multiple ways to the mission of the Institute of Medicine.” In 2015 the American Public Health Association conferred on him a lifetime achievement award. Professor Gostin has chaired and served on multiple expert National Academies committees and has served on several National Academies boards, including global health, population health, and health sciences policy.
Georges C. Benjamin, M.D., is a well-known health policy leader, practitioner, and administrator. He currently serves as the executive director of the American Public Health Association, the nation’s oldest and largest organization of public health professionals. He is also a former secretary of health for the state of Maryland. Dr. Benjamin is a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois College of Medicine. He is board certified in internal medicine, a master of the American College
of Physicians, a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, a fellow emeritus of the American College of Emergency Physicians, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. He serves on several nonprofit boards such as Research!America, the Truth Foundation, and the Reagan-Udall Foundation. He is a former member of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, a council that advises the president on how best to assure the security of the nation’s critical infrastructure.
Nahid Bhadelia, M.D., M.A.L.D., is the founding director of Boston University (BU) Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases. She is a board-certified infectious diseases physician and an associate professor at the BU School of Medicine. She served as the senior policy advisor for global COVID-19 response for the White House COVID-19 Response Team in 2022–2023 as well as the interim testing coordinator on the White House mpox response team. Between 2011 and 2021, Dr. Bhadelia helped develop and then served as the medical director of the Special Pathogens Unit (SPU) at Boston Medical Center, a medical unit designed to care for patients with highly communicable diseases. She was also previously an associate director for BU’s maximum containment research program, the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories. She has provided direct care and helped lead medical and research response to multiple viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks in East and West Africa. Dr. Bhadelia’s research focuses on global health security and pandemic preparedness, including medical countermeasure evaluation and clinical care for emerging infections, diagnostics evaluation and positioning, infection control policy development, and health care worker training. She is a member of the National Academies Forum on Microbial Threats.
Inger Damon, M.D., Ph.D., retired from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in September 2022, where her career spanned 23 years of work on deadly diseases and associated preparedness and response efforts. Currently, she continues to hold an adjunct faculty position with Emory University School of Medicine. She is one of the world’s experts on orthopoxviruses, including smallpox, an infectious disease that killed millions before it was declared eradicated in 1980 by global surveillance and vaccination campaigns. For over 15 years, Dr. Damon directed CDC’s smallpox research program, conducting research to help develop new smallpox diagnostic tests, assess the effectiveness of new vaccines, and create better drugs for treatment. Her expertise leading this global poxvirus activity included programs to look for sources of poxviruses in wildlife, leading CDC’s 2003 response to an outbreak of monkeypox in the United States linked to imported exotic pets, and reestablishment of collaborative work on mpox in the Congo Basin. From 2014 to 2022, Dr.
Damon served as the director for the Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, overseeing the agency’s expertise on deadly pathogens such as Ebola, other viral hemorrhagic fever viruses, smallpox, rabies, and anthrax. The division has responsibility for a broad range of bacterial and viral pathogens, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, and prion diseases and cross-cutting pathology roles. She served as the incident manager for CDC’s response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa to help direct the agency’s national and global fight against Ebola.
Dr. Damon has worked with multiple international organizations. Most recently, she served as rapporteur on the International Health Regulations emergency committee on the multi-country outbreak of mpox and on the standing recommendations committee. She served as a member of the scientific advisory board for Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations from 2017 to 2023 and has been a member of the World Heath Organization (WHO) Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research since 2018. Dr. Damon has participated as a work group member with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to review information to contribute to ACIP decision making on orthopoxvirus and mpox vaccination recommendations in the United States. Dr. Damon has participated as a member of U.S. interagency smallpox preparedness efforts in the Public Health Emergency Countermeasure Enterprise (PHEMCE). In October 2023, Dr. Damon joined the WHO R&D Pathogen Prioritization workgroup considering Poxvirus family pathogens. Dr. Damon has been a member of the WHO Scientific Advisory Group on the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) since its inception. Dr. Damon is a co-inventor on a patent for a poxvirus diagnostic assay. Dr Damon has published, with multiple co-authors and collaborators, over 200 peer reviewed manuscripts, agency documents, or textbook chapters related to research to understand responding to orthopoxviruses and emerging pathogens. Her efforts and work have been recognized both within the U.S. government and externally through multiple awards. Recent recognitions include CDC’s Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award in 2022, an honorary doctorate of science from Amherst College in 2016, and the United States Public Health Service Distinguished Service Medal in 2017. Dr. Damon completed a combined M.D.–Ph.D. program at the University of Connecticut Health Center in 1992, and received a B.A., magna cum laude in chemistry from Amherst College in 1984. She trained in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (1992–1995) and completed a fellowship in infectious diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 1999, where she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Bernard Moss.
Andrew Endy, Ph.D., is a bioengineer at Stanford University who studies and teaches synthetic biology. His goals are civilization-scale flourishing and
renewal of liberal democracies. Dr. Endy helped launch new undergraduate majors in bioengineering at both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University and the iGEM—a global genetic-engineering “Olympics” enabling thousands of students annually. His past students lead such companies as Ginkgo Bioworks and Octant. He has financial interests in several synthetic biology companies. Dr. Endy served on the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law (CSTL), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Synthetic Biology Task Force, and, briefly, the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board. He currently serves on the World Health Organization’s Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research, the Defense Science Board’s Emerging Biotechnologies Task Force, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Synthetic Biology Task Force. He also serves on the boards of the BioBricks, iGEM, and BioBuilder Educational Foundations, public benefit charities advancing open source biotechnologies and bioengineering education. Esquire magazine recognized Dr. Drew as one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century.
Diane E. Griffin, M.D., Ph.D., is University Distinguished Service Professor and former chair of the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Griffin is a virologist recognized for her work on the pathogenesis of viral infections. She is known particularly for her studies on measles and alphavirus encephalomyelitis which have delineated the role of the immune response in virus clearance, vaccine-induced protection from infection, tissue damage, and immune suppression. She has over 400 publications and has received the Rudolf Virchow Medal from the University of Wurzburg, the Wallace Sterling Award from Stanford University, the FASEB Excellence in Science Award, and the Maxwell Finland Award from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Dr. Griffin graduated from Augustana College with a B.A. in biology and from Stanford University School of Medicine with an M.D. and Ph.D., followed by residency in internal medicine. She was a postdoctoral fellow in virology and infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has been president of the American Society for Virology and the American Society for Microbiology and is currently vice president of the National Academy of Sciences and U.S. Chair of the U.S.–Japan Cooperative Medical Sciences Program. She serves on vaccine advisory committees for GSK and Tekeda Pharmaceuticals and has received research funding from Merck and Gilead Biosciences in addition to the National Institutes of Health. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, American Academy of Microbiology, Association of American Physicians, and the American Philosophical Society.
Noreen Hynes, M.D., M.P.H., is currently associate professor at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Schools of Medicine and Public Health with appointments in infectious diseases (Department of Medicine) and public health (departments of international health, environmental health and engineering, and population/family/reproductive health) and serves as the research director and associate medical director of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Biocontainment Unit. Dr. Hynes spent over 30 years working in the U.S. government including the Peace Corps, Department of State, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Office of the Vice President of the United States. She has worked both internationally and domestically providing medical care, working with and at state/county/local health departments, teaching (bedside and classroom), and undertaking research (laboratory-based vaccine [Ebola, dengue, COVID-19] and therapeutic randomized clinical trials [COVID-19 ACTT], implementation science [COVID-19], and disease surveillance). Since 1997 she has increasingly focused on high-consequence pathogens, particularly Category A agents, including as a deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (now ASPR), and the director of the Office of Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures, now the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, and she created the Office of Public Health Emergency Countermeasures. In the latter setting, Dr Hynes ran an $8 billion program to develop and acquire medical countermeasures (MCMs) for the Strategic National Stockpile, including smallpox MCMs (live, replicating smallpox vaccine [ACAM2000], live non-replicating smallpox vaccine [MVA-BN/Jynneos], ST-246 [tecovirimat/Tpoxx]), anthrax MCMs, and pandemic influenza MCMs. Dr. Hynes is trained as a physician and has completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in infectious diseases at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital, a master of public health at JHU, field epidemiology as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene from the Royal College of Physicians/London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. She has received numerous awards including the HHS Secretary’s Award for outstanding Service, the U.S. Public Health Service’s Distinguished Service Medal, and the Leadership Program for Women Faculty at JHU. Dr. Hynes has published over 100 journal articles and book chapters.
Richard Kennedy, Ph.D., is a professor of medicine and the co-director of Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group. He has over 150 peer-reviewed publications. He is the deputy editor-in-chief of Vaccine: X, an associate editor at Vaccine, and an associate editor for Frontiers in Immunology. He is a member of the American Association of Immunologists and the American Society for Microbiology. He has served as a reviewer for dozens of National Institutes of Health (NIH) study sections and has participated in
numerous national and international review panels. Dr. Kennedy has multiple R01 grants from NIH funding his work on viral vaccine immunology. Dr. Kennedy has also received foundation and industry funding to study adverse events after COVID-19 vaccination and to develop peptide-based vaccines for COVID-19, respectively. His research emphasis is on understanding the factors driving the tremendous diversity in human immune responses to vaccines against viral pathogens, including influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, SARS-CoV-2, smallpox, varicella, and Zika. Dr. Kennedy has authored the smallpox and vaccinia chapter in the textbook Vaccines, served as an advisor for the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety in 2015, wrote the report Emergency Stockpiling and Future Use of Smallpox Vaccines for that committee, and served as an external advisor for the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts—Monkeypox Working Group in 2022. Dr. Kennedy is also a member of the Joint Scientific Committee for Phase 1 Clinical Trials for the Queen Mary Hospital (The University of Hong Kong) and Prince of Wales Hospital (The Chinese University of Hong Kong).
Kent Kester, M.D., is currently the vice president of translational medicine at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. During a 24-year career in the U.S. Army, he worked extensively in clinical vaccine development and led multiple research platforms at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, the Department of Defense’s largest and most diverse biomedical research laboratory with a major emphasis on emerging infectious diseases, an institution he later led as its commander. His final military assignment was as the associate dean for clinical research in the School of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS). During his military service, Dr. Kester was appointed as the lead policy advisor to the U.S. Army Surgeon General both in infectious diseases and in medical research and development. More recently, he served as the head of translational medicine and biomarkers at Sanofi Pasteur. Dr. Kester holds an undergraduate degree from Bucknell University and an M.D. from Jefferson Medical College; he completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Maryland and a research fellowship in infectious diseases at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Currently a member of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Services Research and Development Service Merit Review Board, the National Academy Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Initiative scientific advisory committee, he previously chaired the steering committee of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)/USUHS Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program, and he has served as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biologics Products Advisory
Committee, the NIAID advisory council, and the board of scientific counselors for the Office of Infectious Diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is the vice chair of the National Academy of Medicine Forum on Microbial Threats. Board-certified in both internal medicine and infectious diseases, Dr. Kester holds faculty appointments at USUHS and the University of Maryland and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the Infectious Disease Society of America, and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He is a member of the clinical faculty at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore and the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He has ownership of (former employee) stock in a pharmaceutical company that does not work in the area of smallpox and related vaccines.
Anne Rimoin, Ph.D., M.P.H., is a professor of epidemiology and the Gordon-Levin Endowed Chair in Infectious Diseases and Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Fielding School of Public Health. She is the director of the Center for Global and Immigrant Health and the director and founder of the UCLA-DRC Health Research and Training Program. She is a globally recognized expert on infectious diseases, global health, disease surveillance systems, and vaccination. Dr. Rimoin has been leading studies of emerging and vaccine preventable diseases for more than two decades. Her work has contributed to the fundamental understanding of the epidemiology of human mpox, long-term immunity to Ebola virus in survivors, and durability of immune response to Ebola virus vaccines in health workers. Her current research portfolio includes studies of Congo Crimean hemorrhagic fever, COVID-19, Ebola virus, Nipahvirus, Marburg, mpox, and vaccine-preventable diseases of childhood. She is considered one of the world’s leading subject matter experts on the epidemiology of mpox and participated on the World Health Organization (WHO) International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on the multi-country outbreak of mpox and the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization Working Group on Smallpox and Mpox. She has been recognized for her achievements in the fields of epidemiology and global health with the Middlebury College Alumni Achievement Award (2017), induction as a fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2019), and the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association Global Achievement Award (2021). Dr. Rimoin earned her B.A. at Middlebury College, M.P.H. at UCLA, and Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University. She started her career in global public health as a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin, West Africa, in the Guinea Worm Eradication Program.
Oyewale Tomori, D.V.M., Ph.D., is a past president of the Nigerian Academy of Science with experience in virology, disease prevention, and control. He was a researcher at the University of Ibadan from 1971 to 1994.
He later served as the pioneer vice chancellor of the Redeemer’s University in Nigeria from 2004 to 2011. From 1994 to 2004, he was the virologist for the WHO-AFRO, establishing the African Regional Polio Laboratory Network. In 1981, he was recognized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for contributions to Lassa fever research. In 2002, he received the Nigerian National Order of Merit, the country’s highest award for academic and intellectual attainment and national development. Dr. Tomori has served or continues to serve on numerous advisory committees, at national and global levels, including (national) Lassa Fever Steering Committee, Laboratory Technical Working Group, Expert Group on Polio Eradication and Routine Immunization, and Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Response, and (international) World Health Organization (WHO) SAGE, WHO-AFRO Polio Certification Committee, WHO Yellow Fever Disease Committee, WHO TAG on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition, GAVI Board, U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Global Health Risk Framework Commission, and WHO-AFRO Laboratory Planning and Quality Monitoring Adviser. He is a member of U.S. National Academy of Medicine. He has authored or co-authored over 160 scientific publications. Dr. Tomori currently serves as a non-executive chair of the board of directors of BioVaccines Nigeria Limited (BVNL), a joint special purpose vehicle company set up between the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and the May and Baker Company, a private pharmaceutical company, to manufacture locally vaccines for childhood vaccinations in Nigeria. The board provides guidance and policy oversight to the Management of BVNL. It is a non-remunerative position. Dr. Tomori is one of the three representatives of the FGN in the BVNL Board.
Henry Willis, Ph.D., is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He previously served as deputy director of the RAND Homeland Security Division and director of the division’s Strategy, Policy, and Operations Program and Infrastructure, Immigration, and Security Operations Program. Dr. Willis is a recognized expert in risk analysis and management. Recent work analyzes biosecurity risks and biodefense capabilities; food, energy, and water security; climate and natural disaster risks; critical infrastructure resilience; national preparedness to chemical, biological, nuclear, and radiological attacks; and prevention of global catastrophic and existential risk. Through his work he testified before Congress; served on several committees of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; advised government agencies across the United States, Europe, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates; and published dozens of journal articles, reports, and op-eds on applying risk analysis to homeland security policy. Dr. Willis is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on
the science and governance committees of the Society for Risk Analysis. His work in homeland security policy evolved from his work on program evaluation at the White House Office of Management and Budget and infrastructure design as a water and wastewater engineer. He earned his Ph.D. in engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, M.S. in environmental engineering from the University of Cincinnati, and B.A. in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.
Matthew Wynia, M.D., M.P.H., is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases, with additional training in public health and health services research. He led the Institute for Ethics at the American Medical Association for 15 years and founded its Center for Patient Safety before moving in 2015 to become the director of the University of Colorado (CU) Center for Bioethics and Humanities (CBH). The CBH is involved in the education for every health professions student at CU, facilitates clinical ethics case consultation for hospitals on the Anschutz Medical Campus, and carries out a research agenda to better understand the complex ethical challenges facing medicine and society. The center also runs the annual Aspen Ethical Leadership Program and several major community engagement programs, including the annual Holocaust Genocide Contemporary Bioethics program and the Hard Call® podcast series. Dr. Wynia has led national projects on issues including public health and disaster ethics; ethics and quality improvement; communication, team-based care and engaging patients as members of the team; and medicine and the Holocaust. He has delivered more than two dozen named lectures and visiting professorships and is the author of more than 160 published articles, co-editor of several books, and co-author of a book on fairness in health care benefit design. He is a fellow of the Hastings Center, past president of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, and past chair of the Ethics Forum of the American Public Health Association and the Ethics Committee of the Society for General Internal Medicine.
Zhilong Yang, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University. He has been working on large DNA viruses for over 21 years, including over 15 years on poxviruses. His current research focuses on understanding how poxviruses replicate in their infected host cells, antiviral discovery, and poxvirus utility development. He is a member of American Society for Virology as well as a member of American Society for Microbiology. He obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Nankai University and his Ph.D. degree from University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and he received postdoc training in the Laboratory of Viral Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
STAFF AND CONSULTANT BIOS
Lisa Brown, M.P.H. (Study Director), is a senior program officer on the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) and develops and manages projects at the National Academies related to solving the nation’s most pressing health security issues. She currently serves as a director for the Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats and the Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies. She has directed several projects, including the Committee on Equitable Allocation of Vaccine for the Novel Coronavirus, the Committee on Data Needs to Monitor Evolution of SARS-CoV-2, the Committee on Evidence-Based Practices for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response, and the Committee on Strengthening the Disaster Resilience of Academic Research Communities. Prior to the National Academies, Ms. Brown served as senior program analyst for public health preparedness and environment health at the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). In this capacity, Ms. Brown served as project lead for medical countermeasures and the Strategic National Stockpile, researched radiation preparedness issues, and was involved in high-level U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiatives for the development of clinical guidance for smallpox, anthrax, and botulism countermeasures in a mass casualty event. In 2015, she was selected as a fellow in the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative at the Center for Health Security, a highly competitive program to prepare the next generation of leaders in the field of biosecurity. Prior to her work at NACCHO, Ms. Brown worked as an Environmental Public Health Scientist at Public Health England (PHE) in London, England. While at PHE, she focused on climate change, the recovery process following disasters, and the impact of droughts and floods on emerging infectious diseases. She received her master of public health from King’s College London in 2012 and her bachelor of science in biology from The University of Findlay in 2010.
Shalini Singaravelu, M.Sc., is a program officer at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine with the Board on Health Sciences Policy, where she supports the Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats and the Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies. Before joining the National Academies, Ms. Singaravelu managed a portfolio of digital health tools as a program manager at IBM. From 2015 to 2019, she was a consultant for the World Health Organization Health Emergencies Pro-gramme in Geneva. In this role, she supported preparedness and response to emerging infectious disease epidemics with a focus on operational data systems, risk communication, and community engagement. Prior to this,
she worked on psychosocial support programming for HIV-affected orphans and vulnerable children in South Africa. Ms. Singaravelu was a 2022 Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative (ELBI) Fellow with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. She has a graduate certificate in risk sciences and public policy from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2021), where she is currently a Dr.P.H. candidate in environmental health and health security. She received her M.Sc. in global mental health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2014) and a B.A. in anthropology from Union College (2012).
Matthew Masiello, M.P.H., is an associate program officer on the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine where he supports projects that focus on health security and public health emergency preparedness and response. He completed his M.P.H. in May 2021 at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, where he focused on disaster epidemiology and COVID-19 vaccine uptake. His thesis measured COVID-19 vaccine intent among the Emory student body and captured predictors for vaccine uptake and hesitancy. While completing his M.P.H., Mr. Masiello interned at the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists where he supported the Tribal Epidemiology Subcommittee and the Epidemiological Capacity Assessment. Prior to his M.P.H. program, Mr. Masiello spent 3 years at the National Academies supporting four consensus studies across the Health and Medicine Division. He earned his B.A. at American University in May 2016.
Margaret McCarthy, M.Sc., is a research associate with the International Networks and Cooperation Theme within the Policy and Global Affairs Division. She previously worked with the Board on Health Sciences Policy within the Health and Medicine Division for the last 2.5 years on projects related to health security and pandemic preparedness. Before joining the National Academies, Ms. McCarthy worked at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the Division of Infectious Diseases. She graduated from American University with a B.A. in international studies and a master’s degree in global health and development from University College London. She is currently pursuing an online, part-time master’s degree in global security from King’s College London.
Claire Biffl, B.A., is a research associate working on the Forum on Microbial Threats within the Board on Global Health at the National Academies. Her recent work has focused on pandemic preparedness, antimicrobial resistance, and arboviral threats. She graduated with High Honors from Emory University in 2020 after earning a B.A. in anthropology and a minor in political science. Her senior thesis was an
ethnographic study of gerontological topics as observed in an independent senior living facility in Georgia.
Rayane Silva-Curran is a senior program assistant on the Board on Health Sciences Policy, with the Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies. Before joining the National Academies, Ms. Silva-Curran worked as a COVID-19 contact tracer for the Fairfax County Health Department. She received her B.S. in community health with a concentration in global health from George Mason University. She also holds a B.S. in biology from the Universidade Estadual de Goias (Brazil).
Kavita Berger, Ph.D., is the director of the Board on Life Sciences and co-director of the Board on Animal Health Sciences, Conservation, and Research of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She is a life scientist with extensive experience in the addressing a diversity of technical, policy, national security, and societal issues associated with the life sciences and biotechnology. Dr. Berger leads and oversees the Board on Life Sciences’ work across a variety of life science areas, including basic, applied, and emerging life sciences research; biotechnology research and convergence; bioeconomy-related research and development; biosecurity and biodefense; ecology and biodiversity; and integrated human, animal, plant, and ecological health. Prior to joining the National Academies, Dr. Berger was a principal scientist at Gryphon Scientific. There she led numerous projects involving biotechnology landscape analyses, biosecurity and biodefense policy, risk and benefits of life science research and technologies, and international bioengagement. Dr. Berger was responsible for several biosecurity and biodefense initiatives at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, including a meeting series on topics ranging from health security to preventing biological weapons. Dr. Berger has served on two National Research Council committees related to cooperative biological engagement, on the board of directors for the nongovernmental Global Health Security Agenda Consortium, and as a subject matter expert for various government and nongovernmental organizations. A list of Dr. Berger’s publications is accessible through her MyNCBI bibliography. Dr. Berger has a Ph.D. in genetics and molecular biology from Emory University and conducted preclinical research on HIV and smallpox vaccines.
Julie Pavlin, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., is the director of the Board on Global Health at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine where she coordinates analyses of health developments beyond U.S. borders and areas of international health investment that promote global well-being, security, and economic development. Prior to this position, she was
a research area director at the Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program and the deputy director of the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center. She is a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army with previous assignments including the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences in Bangkok, Thailand; the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases. She concentrated most of her time with the Department of Defense in the design of real-time disease surveillance systems and was a co-founder of the International Society for Disease Surveillance. Dr. Pavlin received her A.B. from Cornell University, M.D. from Loyola University, M.P.H. from Harvard University, and Ph.D. in emerging infectious diseases at the Uniformed Services University.
Clare Stroud, Ph.D., is the senior board director for the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In this capacity, she oversees a program of activities aimed at fostering the basic biomedical and clinical research enterprises; addressing the ethical, legal, and social contexts of scientific and technologic advances related to health; and strengthening the preparedness, resilience, and sustainability of communities. Previously, she served as director of the National Academies’ Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders, which brings together leaders from government, academia, industry, and nonprofit organizations to discuss key challenges and emerging issues in neuroscience research, development of therapies for nervous system disorders, and related ethical and societal issues. She also led consensus studies and contributed to projects on topics such as pain management, medications for opioid use disorder, traumatic brain injury, preventing cognitive decline and dementia, supporting persons living with dementia and their caregivers, the health and well-being of young adults, and disaster preparedness and response. Dr. Stroud first joined the National Academies as a Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow. She has also been an associate at AmericaSpeaks, a nonprofit organization that engaged citizens in decision making on important public policy issues. Dr. Stroud received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, with research focused on the cognitive neuroscience of language, and her bachelor’s degree from Queen’s University in Canada.
Ellen P. Carlin, D.V.M., is a veterinarian and policy expert who specializes in emerging infectious disease prevention and preparedness. She is the owner of Parapet Science & Policy Consulting, providing research and writing support for animal and public health projects and initiatives. She supports the implementation of infectious disease research projects in the United States and abroad, analysis and publication of results, and development of policy priorities to address the findings. Her scientific and lay
writing has appeared in a variety of platforms read by scientists and by policy makers and their staff, including the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, The Washington Post, and The Hill. Most recently, she co-authored the book Catastrophic Incentives: Why Our Approaches to Disasters Keep Falling Short (Columbia University Press, 2023). Dr. Carlin is also a lecturer at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, where she teaches the next generation of scientists and policy professionals about the role of the federal government in animal health. In 2013 she completed a fellowship at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine. From 2007 to 2013, she staffed the Ranking Member and then Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, where she covered medical preparedness, biodefense, and science and technology. She maintains her license to practice veterinary medicine and has worked or volunteered as a small animal clinical veterinarian to serve her interests in animal welfare, public health, and parasitology. She received a bachelor of science in biology from the College of Mount Saint Vincent and a doctorate in veterinary medicine from the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine.
