SABIN - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate, Grants & Contracts / Administration
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Executive
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Vaccine Institute As Chief Executive Officer
Amy Finan joined the Sabin Vaccine Institute as Chief Executive Officer in April 2016. In her time as CEO, Amy has led the development and implementation of a new organizational strategy focusing Sabin on a mission to make vaccines more accessible, enable innovation and expand immunization across the globe. Under Amy's leadership, Sabin has rebuilt its vaccine research and development and global immunization programs, while diversifying and expanding its funder base, reinvigorating the Sabin brand and growing its Board of Trustees and staff.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- President, Global Immunization
- Vaccine Institute As President
Anuradha Gupta joined the Sabin Vaccine Institute as President of Global Immunization in October 2022. A veteran public health leader, Anuradha has in her previous roles spearheaded a host of successful global initiatives to improve the health of women and children and harness the full power of vaccines. Her work has created profound impact at a global scale, saving and improving millions of lives.
Prior to Sabin, Anuradha spent several years at Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, as its deputy CEO. She is globally acclaimed for her efforts to center Gavi policies, programs, and partnerships around vaccine equity, gender and communities. She also pioneered the concept of zero-dose children - an idea that is both audacious and ambitious for its focus on children who have not received even a single dose of the most basic vaccines. The multi-dimensional impact and importance of reaching these children with vaccines and other essential services was widely embraced and zero-dose children are now front and center of the Global Immunization Agenda 2030 and incorporated into country programs. She was also the guiding force behind Gavi's $500 million Equity Accelerator Fund which includes an innovative initiative aimed at reaching zero-dose children in conflict zones and drought-afflicted areas in the Sahel region and the Horn of Africa.
Under Anuradha's leadership, Gavi won many accolades and rolled out a new framework for a country-centric engagement strategy, moving away from a one-size fits all approach and building differentiated, transparent and accountable partnerships with remarkable success. During this period, a record number of vaccine introductions were achieved in low- and middle-income countries, the coverage of key Gavi funded vaccines became higher than that in the rest of the world and vaccine preventable child deaths declined. Those achievements contributed to Gavi receiving the prestigious Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award in 2019 for providing sustained access to childhood vaccines in the world's poorest countries.
Anuradha's leadership on gender equity led to Gavi becoming the first institution in global health to accomplish the Equal Salary Employer certification, ensuring women were recruited, remunerated, rewarded and recognized at par with men. She has worked tirelessly to shine the spotlight on gender barriers that impede access to vaccines and to craft creative and empathetic solutions in partnership with countries and communities.
Prior to Gavi, Anuradha served in the Indian Administrative Service (the IAS as it's called is India's preeminent civil service) and held leadership positions in a wide range of sectors including health, education, nutrition and finance. As Mission Director of the National Health Mission of India, she ran the largest - and possibly most complex - public health program in the world, with an annual budget of $3.5 billion. Under her leadership, India went from a country with half of the global polio burden to zero polio cases - the successful eradication of polio in India is still considered an exemplar for global health and a public health feat.
While in India, she pioneered the concept of the integrated Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (or RMCNH as it's more commonly called) which shaped global discourse and initiatives including the World Bank's Global Financing Facility. She was also the architect of a wide range of transformative initiatives that enabled free-of-cost access to health care for millions of women and children including family planning services, all resulting in an impressive reduction in maternal and child deaths as well as fertility rates in India.
Anuradha has contributed towards several important global health initiatives. She served as a member of the Steering Committee for Child Survival Call to Action, co-chaired the Stakeholder Group for the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning and was a member of the Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) Reference Group. Both these watershed initiatives brought renewed momentum to reducing child deaths and expanding access to family planning services. She also played a role in shaping the Global Financing Facility (GFF) and was a long-standing member of the GFF Investors Group. She was the co-chair and board member of the Partnership for Maternal Newborn Child Health (PMNCH), ensuring health of women and children remains an important priority under the Sustainable Development Goals. She was a founder member of the Equity Reference Group and played a pivotal role in advancing the equity agenda. As member of the Immunization Agenda 2030 Partners Council, she was a key influencer in shaping immunization goals and strategies. Anuradha also served on the Global Advisory Committee of the Merck for Mothers Initiative, leveraging her extensive experience to improve the quality of maternal care in countries with the highest maternal deaths.
A strong believer in life-long learning, Gupta holds an MBA from the University of Wollongong in Australia and received executive education from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Stanford Graduate School of Business and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. In 2015, she was named one of "300 Women Leaders in Global Health" by the Global Health Centre of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. She was profiled among the ten most influential women IAS officers in a recently released book.
In recognition of the enormous impact created by her work, in 2021, Anuradha received the University of Wollongong's Alumni Award for Social Impact. As a testament to her ability to forge strong partnership with countries to save lives, she was conferred the highest civilian award for public service by the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Cross of Labour by the President of Laos for contributions to the health of the people in that country. She was most recently awarded the Advance Global Australian Award, another stellar recognition of the global impact of her many accomplishments.
Job Titles:
- Associate, Global Community Engagement
Job Titles:
- Manager, Program Strategy / Global Immunization
Job Titles:
- Senior Manager / Operations & Events
Job Titles:
- Associate, Engagement and Applied Learning
Job Titles:
- Human Resources Generalist / Operations & Human Resources
Job Titles:
- Senior Project Manager / Research & Development
Job Titles:
- Director of Pre - Clinical / Research & Development
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Global Immunization Committee Chair
- Professor
With more than 40 years of experience, David Salisbury is a well-known and well-respected leader in immunization program policy and implementation, with first-hand experience managing the UK's national immunization program and strategic expertise ranging from vaccine research to disease eradication. He is currently an Associate Fellow of the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House, London, as well as Chair of the Global Commission for Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication.
Professor Salisbury has shaped global approaches to immunization through a variety of important leadership or advisory roles: chair of the World Health Organization Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE), co-chair of the Pandemic Influenza Working Group of the Global Health Security Initiative, and chair of the Research & Development Working Group of the Decade of Vaccines Initiative. Under his leadership from 2010 to 2012, this working group produced the road map for development and introduction of new vaccines targeted for the decade. His current work includes leading the Global Polio Eradication Certification Commission, as well as focusing on the impact of vaccines in the decreasing the threat of antimicrobial resistance.
From 2007 to 2013, Professor Salisbury was the Director of Immunization at the Department of Health for the United Kingdom. He had been responsible for the UK's national immunization program, directing research, strategy, policy, vaccine purchase and implementation. He led the introduction of numerous new vaccines and vaccine programs, including MMR, Hib, rotavirus vaccine, varicella zoster vaccine, meningococcal C vaccine and influenza vaccine for children, pertussis and influenza vaccines for pregnant women, and pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. Also, during his tenure, immunization coverage increased steadily for routine vaccines.
Professor Salisbury has published more than 100 papers on immunization and pediatric topics in peer-reviewed journals, including the Lancet, Nature, Science, Vaccine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. He is a frequent international lecturer and advisor on vaccines and vaccination.
Professor Salisbury was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the Queen's Birthday Honors in 2001 for his services in the field of immunization. He was made a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2014. Professor Salisbury is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, and the Faculty of Public Health. He is a graduate of London University and trained as pediatrician at Oxford and at the Hospital for Sick Children, London.
Job Titles:
- Senior Staff Member
- Vice President of Clinical Development at the Sabin Vaccine Institute
- Vice President, Clinical Development / Research & Development
Dr. Antonio Gonzalez-Lopez is the Vice President of Clinical Development at the Sabin Vaccine Institute. In this role, he leads a team focused on developing new vaccines to protect against deadly and debilitating infectious diseases. Since joining Sabin in April 2023, he is leading the clinical development program for Sabin's Marburg and Ebola Sudan vaccine candidates.
Antonio brings extensive experience in vaccine development in the biopharmaceutical industry, having previously served with increased levels of responsibility at Sanofi-Pasteur MSD, Novartis Vaccines, GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines and AstraZeneca. He participated in several vaccine development programs from early to late phase, including the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine program. Prior to joining Sabin, Antonio worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute. He has co-authored more than 80 scientific articles in medical journals.
Antonio earned his MD from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain, post-graduate trained in Preventive Medicine and Infectious Diseases. He holds a Master of Public Health from the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
- Distinguished Physician - Scientist
Dr. Axel Hoos is a distinguished physician-scientist, executive, entrepreneur, and leader. He is the former CEO of Scorpion Therapeutics and prior to that, served as Senior Vice President, R&D Governance Chair, and Therapeutic Area Head for Oncology at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (GSK). In that role, Dr. Hoos was responsible for technical and funding decisions and re-built the Oncology business after GSK's 2015 divestment of Oncology products to Novartis, across all therapeutic modalities in the focus areas of immuno-oncology, synthetic lethality, tumor cell targeting, epigenetics, and cell & gene therapy.
Dr. Hoos is recognized as an Immuno-Oncology pioneer for his work on the development of the anti-CTLA-4 antibody ipilimumab, the first FDA-approved checkpoint immunotherapy, and the creation of a new development paradigm for cancer immunotherapies, which launched the field of Immuno-Oncology.
He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees at the Sabin Vaccine Institute, a global health organization, Director on the Board of TCR2, a cell therapy company, and member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Co-Director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium at the Cancer Research Institute. He further co-founded and served as Director on the Board at Imugene, an Australian biotech company, from 2013-2021, and was a founding member of the PACT Initiative of the Biden Cancer Moonshot.
Dr. Hoos received his M.D. in Medicine from Heidelberg University, and his Ph.D. in Molecular Oncology from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). He trained in general surgery at the Technical University of Munich and as a fellow in cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and is an alumni of the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.
Job Titles:
- Senior Staff Member
- Vice President of Applied Epidemiology at the Sabin Vaccine Institute
- Vice President, Applied Epidemiology
Dr. Denise Garrett is the Vice President of Applied Epidemiology at the Sabin Vaccine Institute, where she leads a team dedicated to generating epidemiological evidence for informed vaccine decision-making, optimizing vaccine use, and enhancing the impact of immunization.
Denise brings extensive expertise in epidemiological operational research, program leadership and management, infectious disease control and prevention, and vaccine effectiveness studies. Before joining Sabin, she served as a medical epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for over 23 years. During her tenure, Denise focused on international health and research, overseeing numerous multicenter studies in both high- and low-resource settings.
Denise received her medical training, specializing in infectious diseases, and earned a master's degree in human biology from Brazil's Federal University of Minas Gerais. Additionally, she completed the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) program at the CDC, where she received training in the practice of applied epidemiology.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
- Senior Leader and Technical Expert
Dr. Elizabeth Fox is a senior leader and technical expert with 40 years' experience making communications, behavior, and culture central to health programs around the world. She currently serves as Chief Technical Leadership Officer at the Pan American Development Foundation. During her 23-year career at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), including as director of the Office of Health, Infectious Diseases, and Nutrition, she built and managed large global health initiatives and led multi-disciplinary teams to achieve ambitious, measurable health goals. She is a recognized expert in advancing the application of evidence-based social sciences to public health. At USAID, she redirected global health programs to increase their focus on people, communities, behavior and cultures, in addition to delivering services, medicines and medical interventions. She led a multi-agency evidence summit on Population-level Behavior Change to Enhance Child Survival and Development, and developed a roadmap for building, reporting, assessing and applying evidence for social, behavioral and community engagement interventions for women's and children's health.
Before joining USAID, Dr. Fox was the manager of strategic planning at the International Bureau of Broadcasting. She spent 10 years in Colombia and Argentina with the International Development Research Centre of Canada as the social sciences representative for Latin America.
Dr. Fox holds a doctorate in international relations from America University School of International Service, a master's degree in communications from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and a degree in journalism from the Javieriana University in Colombia. In 1990, she held the first UNESCO chair in communication at the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona. In 2007, she received an honorary doctorate from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica of Peru. She taught graduate level courses in communication, health, and development at the American University School of International Service, between 2007 and 2015. Her extensive publications in the fields of health and development, social and behavioral sciences, and media and politics include numerous books on media development and social movements, health communications, and broadcasting as well as chapters in books, and articles in the Journal of Health Communication, The Handbook of Global Health Communication, the Cambridge History of Latin America and the Atlantic Monthly.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
Dr. Jacqueline Shea joined Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., as its chief operating officer in March 2019, and was previously the chief executive officer at Aeras. An accomplished operational and business development executive with more than 20 years of experience in the life sciences industry, Dr. Shea combines commercial acumen with her strong scientific base in molecular biology, immunology and infectious disease.
Prior to Aeras she spent eight years in a variety of senior management roles with Emergent BioSolutions, including five years as general manager and vice president of The Oxford-Emergent Tuberculosis Consortium. Dr. Shea has spent much of her career dedicated to developing products to prevent and treat infectious diseases. She has played a leading role in advancing new TB vaccines over the past decade. She holds 20 patents, including those for gene identification technology and Salmonella virulence genes.
Dr. Shea received her doctorate from the National Institute for Medical Research in the U.K. and earned a bachelor's degree in applied biology.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
- Expert
Dr. Norman W. Baylor is an expert in the development and licensure of new vaccines, evaluating numerous vaccines throughout his career including vaccines for acellular pertussis, varicella, pneumococcal conjugate, human papillomavirus (HPV), influenza and shingles. He is currently the president and CEO of Biologics Consulting Group, Inc, where he is responsible for the overall management and strategic direction of the company.
Prior to this, he spent 20 years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), most recently as Director of the Office of Vaccines Research and Review (OVRR) in the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). In this role, he oversaw all facets of the clinical and product regulatory review activity, including quality assurance and oversight of review functions in addition to planning, developing and administering CBER's broad national and international programs and operational activities for vaccines and related products. Dr. Baylor served as FDA's liaison to CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Vaccine Advisory Committee, and the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines. He served on the board of the Infectious Disease Research Institute and continues to serve as an expert advisor to the World Health Organization on several global vaccine initiatives.
Dr. Baylor received his bachelor's degree in medical microbiology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and his master's degree and doctorate in microbial genetics and molecular microbiology, respectively, from the University of Kentucky.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Executive Committee
- Chairman of the Governance Committee
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Chairman / Executive Committee Chair / Governance Committee Chair
- Director of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative
Dr. Regina Rabinovich took on the role of the Sabin Vaccine Institute board chair in December 2020, after serving as a trustee since 2015 and chair of the Governance Committee since 2016. Dr. Rabinovich is currently the ExxonMobil Malaria Scholar in Residence at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In addition, she is chair of the Malaria Eradication Scientific Alliance at ISGlobal, University of Barcelona, where she also serves as director of the Malaria Elimination Initiative. Dr. Rabinovich has over three decades of experience in global health across research, public health and philanthropic sectors, with a focus on strategy, global health product development and the introduction and scale-up of tools and strategies resulting in impact on endemic populations.
From 2003-2012, Dr. Rabinovich served as director of the Infectious Diseases division at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, overseeing the development and implementation of strategies for the prevention, treatment and control of infectious diseases of particular relevance to malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea and neglected infectious diseases. Dr. Rabinovich also served as chief of the Clinical and Regulatory Affairs Branch at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), focusing on the development and evaluation of vaccines through a network of U.S. clinical research units. She participated in the Children's Vaccine Initiative, a global effort to prevent infectious diseases in children in the developing world.
In 1999, Dr. Rabinovich became director of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance efforts to develop promising malaria vaccine candidates. She serves on the board of the Catholic Medical Mission Board.
Dr. Rabinovich holds a medical degree from Southern Illinois University and a master's degree in public health from the University of North Carolina.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
Dr. Saad B. Omer serves as the Founding Dean of the Peter O'Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He was previously the inaugural director of the Yale Institute of Global Health and, prior to that, the William H. Foege chair in Global Health and professor of Global Health, Epidemiology & Pediatrics at Emory University, Schools of Public Health and Medicine. Dr. Omer has conducted studies in Guatemala, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa and the United States. Dr. Omer's research portfolio includes clinical trials to estimate efficacy of maternal and/or infant influenza, pertussis, polio, measles and pneumococcal vaccines and trials to evaluate drug regimens to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Moreover, he has conducted several studies on interventions to increase immunization coverage and demand. Dr. Omer's work has been cited in global and country-specific policy recommendations and has informed clinical practice and health legislation in several countries. He has mentored more than 100 junior faculty, clinical and research post-doctoral fellows, Ph.D. and other graduate students.
Dr. Omer has published approximately 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, the Lancet, British Medical Journal, Pediatrics, American Journal of Public Health and Science. Moreover, he has written op-eds for publications such as the New York Times, Politico and the Washington Post.
He has received multiple awards - including the Maurice Hilleman Award by the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases for his seminal work on the impact of maternal influenza immunization on respiratory illness in infants younger than 6 months - for whom there is no vaccine. He has served on several advisory panels including the U.S. National Vaccine Advisory Committee, the Public Health Committee of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria - Vaccine Innovation Working Group, and the World Health Organization's Expert Advisory Group for Healthcare Worker Vaccination. Dr. Omer earned a doctorate in global disease epidemiology and control, a master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University, and a bachelor's degree in medicine and surgery from the Aga Khan University Medical College.
Job Titles:
- Senior Staff Member
- Vice President, Nonclinical / Research & Development
Dr. Tom King joined the Sabin Vaccine Institute in 2021 to oversee vaccine development initiatives for Ebola and Marburg. He also aims to add new products to Sabin's vaccine pipeline to deliver affordable, accessible vaccines to under-served populations.
Tom comes to Sabin with a 25-year background in industrial biotechnology. He has served as the R&D director at private and publicly traded companies, including ImmunityBio and GlobeImmune. In these roles, Tom and his teams created animal models to study the immunogenicity of adenoviral, microbial and subunit vaccine platforms combined with protein-based immune modulation. These products, developed against eight distinct infectious disease and cancer targets, have led to 20 phase 1 and 2 FDA-regulated clinical trials. His work also required close collaboration with manufacturing, regulatory, and quality groups across public and private sector leaders - securing $250 million in funds and proceeds to further propel innovation.
Tom earned his PhD at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is inventor/author of 46 patents and peer-reviewed publications. He is eager to strategically leverage his experience towards better health and quality of life for those in emerging economies by creating more efficacious vaccines that are affordable and accessible to all.
Job Titles:
- Manager, Community Engagement / Boost Community
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Portfolio & Alliance Management / Research & Development
Ekaterina Vert-Wong is a dedicated medical innovator committed to bringing high-impact vaccines to patients in need via ethical and equitable research pathways. She joined the Sabin Vaccine Institute in 2021 and leads operational, organizational and alliance management functions. She focuses on overseeing R&D programs planning and execution. She also leads the development teams in the implementation of efficient operations and cost-effective systems to meet current and future needs of the organization. Ekaterina fosters Sabin's internal and external collaborations to move vaccine development milestones forward, secure funding, and implement long-term pipeline strategies, internally and externally via effective alliance management.
Ekaterina brings excellent knowledge of global vaccines R&D practices, proven record of success in leading medical innovation, including execution of all clinical phases and design of global regulatory strategies. Prior to joining Sabin, Ekaterina led departments within innovative and dynamic research organizations, focusing on the development and testing of vaccines and biologics. Her two decades of experience in product development includes development and licensure of BioThrax® for post-exposure prophylaxis and pre-exposure use in special populations at Emergent BioSolutions. At Synthetic Biologics, she managed development of anti-pertussis antibodies for passive vaccination applications under an alliance with the Gates Foundation that she created.
Ekaterina holds a graduate degree in management from Dartmouth College and a graduate degree in biochemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
Job Titles:
- Senior Manager, Global Learning & Engagement
Job Titles:
- Manager, Branding & Design / Communications
Dr. Shepherd was Founding Chair of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and served on the Board of Trustees from 1993 to 2010. He also served as the Institute's President for eight years. Until 1993 he was Chairman and CEO of Armstrong Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which he founded as Aerosol Techniques in 1955.
Heloisa Sabin was a founding member of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and served as a trustee or honorary trustee of the Institute from 1993 to 2016. Wife of the late Dr. Albert B. Sabin, Ms. Sabin dedicated much of her life to continuing the work and legacy of her husband.
An outspoken advocate in the effort to end vaccine-preventable diseases, Ms. Sabin shared Dr. Sabin's dedication to the elimination of needless human suffering and poverty. Following her husband's death in 1993, Ms. Sabin joined with Dr. Herman Shepherd, Dr. Robert Chanock and Dr. Philip Russell to found the Sabin Vaccine Institute. She continuously championed the work and legacy of Dr. Sabin by promoting the role of vaccines in eliminating needless deaths from preventable and treatable diseases. Originally from Brazil, Ms. Sabin lived in Washington, DC, until her death in October of 2016.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
Jeffrey P. Libson is a corporate and transactional attorney to the life sciences, who has also provided his legal and leadership expertise to a number of non-profit organizations during his nearly 40-year career. He is also an adjunct professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania teaching a graduate business course in life sciences entrepreneurship.
Mr. Libson's legal practice focuses predominantly on business matters, including financings, governance, mergers and acquisitions and strategic transactions for both public and private companies across the biotech, diagnostics, pharmaceutical, health care and digital health sectors, often serving as external general counsel.
He has been a practicing attorney at Cooley LLP for three years and was previously at Pepper Hamilton LLP for 37 years, where he served for more than 20 years as chair of the firm's Life Sciences Practice, its largest practice group. During his tenure, he has provided counsel for more than 500 venture capital financings on both the company and investor side and has been involved with a number of IPOs, public offerings and merger and acquisition transactions.
Additionally, Mr. Libson volunteers his expertise and leadership to several nonprofit entities. In the global health community, he served as Board Secretary and External General Counsel of Aeras, the former non-profit organization focused on researching and developing a tuberculosis vaccine. In support of the life sciences community, Mr. Libson served as a board member and secretary of Life Sciences Pennsylvania (formerly, Pennsylvania Bio) for more than 15 years and as counsel to the Association of Bioscience Financial Officers. He also previously served on the boards of the Pennsylvania Life Sciences Institute and BioStrategy Partners. In support of his hometown community in Philadelphia, Mr. Libson served as board chair and continues to serve as a board member of Broad Street Ministry, a faith-based, nonprofit organization that provides a variety of social services to the neediest residents of the Philadelphia community. He also served as a Trustee for the Friends' Central School in Philadelphia.
He received a bachelor's degree in economics and English from Oberlin College and a doctor of jurisprudence degree from Duke University School of Law. A resident of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, he is married with four adult children.
Job Titles:
- Quality Assurance & Control Specialist / Research & Development
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- R & D Committee Chair
Dr. JoAnn Suzich is an influential biotechnology leader with real-world experience translating science into global solutions for patient care with a focus on developing vaccines and antibodies against many of the deadly and debilitating viruses. Her work has played a critical role in the advancement and treatment of health issues affecting women and children. She currently serves as Head of Research at Immunocore after an impressive career at AstraZeneca/MedImmune where she started as a bench scientist and was elevated to Vice President and then Therapeutic Head before retiring in 2019.
During her tenure as Vice President for Research & Development at MedImmune, she was responsible for research on novel vaccines, as well as overseeing the company's research in the development of antibodies and antibody-like molecules for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases including RSV, influenza, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. As Research Director, Dr. Suzich managed the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine program from its inception to out-licensing following Phase 1 clinical trials. She also serves as an advisor for organizations such as the Human Vaccines Project and the Global Women's Health Institute at Purdue University.
Dr. Suzich earned a doctorate in biochemistry from Purdue University and a bachelor's degree in biology from Susquehanna University, where she now serves on the Board of Trustees.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate, Social & Digital Analyst / Communications
Job Titles:
- Senior Staff Member
- Vice President, Programs and Partnerships
Judith Robb-McCord, MAAS, MPH, is the vice president of Programs and Partnerships at Sabin Vaccine Institute. In this role, she provides leadership to Sabin's Global Immunization programs, which range from building stakeholder collaboration to improving vaccine demand and access and reducing inequities, lifting the lagging HPV vaccine, and advancing the uptake of new vaccines and technologies.
Judith is a senior global development professional with leadership experience across U.S. government and non-governmental organizations internationally and in the United States. She has long-standing expertise in partnership development; strategic planning; global and country-level program design and implementation, and the use of data for decision making. She is recognized for her ability to convene global and country level stakeholders to advance collaborative investments in the health and development sectors. Judith is deeply committed to improving health and well-being using a multi-sectoral approach based on equity, local engagement and ownership. Her extensive background living and working in diverse environments includes Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. She has spoken at a broad array of international conferences and forums and is a contributing author on several peer-reviewed journal articles and respected global health publications.
Judith received her Master of Arts in African Area Studies and Master's in Public Health from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director, Grants & Contracts / Administration
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- Senior Manager / Human Resources
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- Senior Manager, Research & Technical Writing
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- Communications & Project Specialist
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- Director, Digital Communications & Audience Development
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- Director, Community Building & Digital Engagement
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- Manager, Documentation & Database Management Systems / Administration
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- Senior Manager, Research & Analysis
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- Director, Regulatory Affairs / Research & Development
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- Media & Public Relations Specialist / Communications
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- Senior Director, Clinical Operations / Research & Development
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- Graphic Designer / Communications
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- Senior Staff Member
- Vice President, Communications
Rajee Suri leads communications for the Sabin Vaccine Institute. In this role, she directs a team focused on Sabin's communications and branding initiatives for internal and external audiences aimed at maximizing institutional reach and impact. Her team helps ensure that the richness and complexity of Sabin's work is relayed in the most compelling way possible, and that the stories at the heart of Sabin's mission are told with humanity and compassion.
Rajee has extensive experience of aligning content solutions with strategic objectives, and has worked in various industries - from news media to non-profits to higher education. Prior to joining Sabin, Rajee was senior director for health sciences and research communications at Atlanta-based Emory University. While there, she spearheaded the development and execution of research communication campaigns that reflected the real world outcomes of R&D at Emory. Her time in the news media includes stints at CNN and WebMD.
Rajee began her career as a print reporter in India. She has a BA in Psychology from the University of Bombay (now Mumbai) and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
For four decades, Professor Adegbola's expertise as a microbiologist and public health advocate has protected vulnerable communities from preventable disease. Currently, he serves as a research professor at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research and a consultant for Immunization & Global Health, RAMBICON. Professor Adegbola's current focus is boosting vaccine implementation and health care systems' capacity to decrease the number of pneumonia-related deaths among children, the leading cause of death in Nigerian children under the age of five, despite the availability of effective vaccines.
Professor Adegbola's work at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit in The Gambia contributed to the widespread use of the Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) conjugate vaccine. When given routinely, this vaccine has resulted in a 90 percent decrease in severe Hib infections. Following his 20-year career with MRC, Professor Adegbola joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where he was a senior program officer for pneumonia clinical studies. He then served as global director, scientific affairs and public health at GlaxoSmithKline.
Professor Adegbola has received international recognition for his contributions to vaccine science along with his mobilization of grassroots immunization awareness campaigns across sub-Saharan Africa. He holds a PhD in Medical Microbiology and Bacteriology from the University of Dundee (UK).
Job Titles:
- Director, Quality Assurance / Research & Development
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- Senior Communications Associate
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- Senior Director, Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls / Research & Development
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- Manager / Resource & Partnership Development
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- Senior Project Manager / Research & Development
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- Senior Manager of Research
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- Senior Administrative Assistant
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- Accounting Assistant / Accounting
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- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Trustee
- Founder and Executive Director of Speak Up Africa
A communications and advocacy expert, Yacine Djibo is founder and executive director of Speak Up Africa, a nonprofit based in Dakar, Senegal, working to accelerate public health and sustainable development in Africa. She created the organization for people across the African continent to engage their policy makers, business leaders and communities in collaborating for tangible health and sanitation solutions. As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Djibo helped form Stay Safe Africa-a coalition focused on increasing immunization and advocating for equitable access to vaccines.
Prior to founding Speak Up Africa, Ms. Djibo served as head of the Senegal office of Malaria No More, where she developed public and private sector partnerships to promote malaria prevention and treatment. Her career began in finance, including serving as managing director of Intercontinental Life Insurance Company.
Ms. Djibo holds a master's of business administration and a bachelor of arts and science in international relations from Boston University.