VACSAFE - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Senior Vice President of Prevent Epidemics
• Senior Vice President, Resolve to Save Lives, New York City, USA

Amanda McClelland, RN, MPH, is the Senior Vice President of Prevent Epidemics and Resolve to Save Lives at Vital Strategies where she leads a team working to accelerate progress to make the world safer from epidemics. Her achievements include coordinating frontline Ebola response during the 2014 Ebola epidemic, for which she received the 2015  Florence Nightingale Medal for exceptional courage. Prior to joining Vital Strategies, McClelland served as the Global Emergency Health Advisor for the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent (IFRC) where she focused on emergency health, epidemic control, mass casualty in low resource settings, disease prevention and response operations.

Job Titles:

• Director of the Technology, Media
• Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of International and Public Affairs, School Intl & Public Affairs

Anya Schiffrin is the director of the Technology, Media, and Communications at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and a lecturer who teaches on global media, innovation and human rights. She writes on journalism and development, investigative reporting in the global south and has published extensively over the last decade on the media in Africa. More recently she has become focused on solutions to the problem of online disinformation, earning her PHD on the topic from the University of Navarra. She is the editor of Global Muckraking: 100 Years of Investigative Reporting from Around the World (New Press, 2014) and African Muckraking: 75 years of Investigative journalism from Africa (Jakana 2017). She is the editor of the forthcoming Media Capture: How Money, Digital Platforms and Governments Control the News (Columbia University Press 2020)

Job Titles:

• Executive
• Executive - in - Residence, Schmidt Futures

Barbara Bush is an Executive-In-Residence at Schmidt Futures focused on racial justice and supporting the Entrepreneur-In-Residence program. She is co-Founder and Board Chair of Global Health Corps, an organization that mobilizes a global community of young leaders to build the movement for health equity. Since 2009, Global Health Corps has supported over 1,000 young leaders to solve the world's most pressing global health issues. Barbara served as GHC's CEO for its first 9 years. Before joining Global Health Corps' founding team, Barbara worked at the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Red Cross Children's Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, and UNICEF in Botswana. Barbara is a Skoll Foundation Social Entrepreneur, a Draper Richards Kaplan Social Entrepreneur, and a fellow of the Echoing Green Foundation. She serves on a number of boards including the Board of Trustees of Partners In Health and the Board of Directors of Friends of the Global Fight for AIDS, TB, and Malaria. Barbara co-authored the #1 New York Times best seller Sisters First with her sister, along with a children's book under the same title. Barbara graduated from Harvard Kennedy School with a Master in Public Administration and Yale University with a BA in Humanities.

Job Titles:

• Scientific Coordinator, African Leadership in Vaccinology Expertise ( ALIVE ), University of the Witwatersrand
• the Scientific Coordinator of the African Leadership

Clare Cutland is the Scientific Coordinator of the African Leadership in Vaccinology Expertise (Alive) consortium, which is led by co-directors Professors Helen Rees (Wits RHI) and Shabir Madhi (VIDA/ RMPRU). ALIVE was selected as the flagship entity for the University of the Witwatersrand in 2016, and aims to create African expertise and leadership in vaccinology training, research and advocacy. She has established and coordinates the MSc(Med) in the field of vaccinology at Wits, and the 10-day African advanced vaccinology short course. Prior to her appointment in ALIVE (Nov 2018), she was a research medical officer and subsequently the deputy director of the Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit (RMPRU, now Wits-VIDA), based at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH), Soweto, South Africa (2000-2018). She was an investigator on numerous phase I, II and III paediatric and maternal vaccine trials and principal investigator on a phase II paediatric measles vaccine trial, a phase III quadrivalent influenza vaccine trial in children and a phase III maternal influenza immunization trial in HIV-positive women. Clare Cutland was the clinical lead for several large grant-funded neonatal sepsis prevention (PoPS, sepsis surveillance) and maternal immunization studies (influenza, Streptococcus agalactiae / Group B streptococcus sero-correlate of protection) and an investigator on numerous maternal immunization trials (GBS, RSV), and has published on challenges and lessons learnt in maternal immunization trials. She is national coordinator for the Oxford-AZ COVID-19 vaccine trial in South Africa (April 2020 - current), being led by Shabir Madhi, and is a sub-investigator on Oxford-Astra Zeneca- and Novavax COVID-19 vaccine trials She was involved in the GAIA Brighton collaboration definition working groups (2014-2016), and was elected as a member of the scientific board of the Brighton collaboration in 2018 (to present). She is a member of the Wits Institutional biosafety committee and working group for maternal COVID-19 vaccines. She is author or co-author on over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Job Titles:

• Chairman at Sirti S.P.a
• Chairman, Sirti S.P.a and V - Nova Ltd., and Director Emeritus, McKinsey & Company
• Independent Member of the Boards of Directors of Telecommunications Companies

David Benello is the Chairman at Sirti S.p.A and V-Nova Ltd. and Director Emeritus of McKinsey & Company. He received an MA in mathematics from the University of Oxford and served as Deputy Lieutenant at the Aosta Alpine Military School, where he was Course Leader. He worked at Arthur Andersen as an analyst/programmer before obtaining an MBA at Harvard Business School. For 30 years he was at McKinsey, where he served customers in Europe, America and Asia in many sectors, leading the Industrial and Telecommunications/Hi-Tech sectors in the UK and Strategy Practice in Europe. In recent years, David has been an independent member of the boards of directors of telecommunications companies (Telecom Italia, Telekom Malaysia, Rostelecom) and a fintech company (Tungsten Network). David is also Chairman of V-Nova International, a London-based start-up with AI technologies for image and video compression, selected as the core technology for a new MPEG standard. He is also a Board Member of AICPA, a global organisation representing some 700,000 accountants, and Chairman of King's Maths School, a high school for gifted children linked to King's College London and specialising in mathematics, physics and computer science. Passionate about flying and a private pilot, David was a member of the Board of the American Air Museum in Great Britain in Duxford.

Job Titles:

• Professor
• Professor of Pharmacology and Biosafety Advisor at Animal Health Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Egypt

Dr. Ali Asy currently serves as a professor of pharmacology and biosafety advisor at Animal Health Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Egypt. He received his Bachelor of Science of Veterinary Medicine in 1999; and earned his master and PhD in pharmacology from faculty of veterinary medicine, Zagazig University in 2007. His academic studies and research are focused on how to avoid the side effects of pharmaceutical products like antibiotics and anticoccidial drugs. Asy tried to solve the main side effects of these pharmaceutical products which are antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and drug residues. He focused on natural alternatives for these products. Moreover, he studies the safety and main side effects of veterinary vaccines like avian influenza and Newcastle disease vaccines. He has edited 3 editions of the "Veterinary Drugs' Guide" which is a comprehensive guide about the veterinary drugs used in the Egyptian market. Asy is a member of many professional associations like the Egyptian Society of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, the Egyptian Society of Virology, and the World Veterinary Poultry Association. He participated in many scientific projects concerning the biorisk management, one health and health security. Currently, he serves as a chair technical working group north Africa region, Africa CDC, African Union. Moreover, he worked as an independent consultant for University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), Omaha, NE, USA. Asy is an IFBA Certified Professional in Biorisk Management and Biosecurity. In addition to his academic and scientific positions, he has wide experience as a technical consultant for many national and international private companies which worked in veterinary pharmaceuticals and vaccines.

Job Titles:

• Scientific Director, Brighton Collaboration Safety Platform for Emergency Vaccines, Decatur, GA, USA

Dr. Robert T Chen has been active in research of vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases for over 35 years, mostly at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He played key roles in modernizing the vaccine safety infrastructure in the U.S. and elsewhere, including the creation of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) project, the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment (CISA) Network, the Brighton Collaboration, the Safety Injection Global Network (SIGN), and Vaccine Special Interest Group (VAXSIG) of the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology. He has authored or coauthored over 290 publications. Dr. Chen is currently the Scientific Director of the Brighton Collaboration, the Lead for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI)-funded Safety Platform for Emergency vACcines (SPEAC) Project, CDC funded CARESAFE Project, and co-lead of the COVAX Vaccine Safety Working Group.

Job Titles:

• Principal Investigator
• Senior Research Scholar in the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Inst Soc & Econ Research & Policy

Wilmot James is a Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) at Columbia University. He conducts research on pandemic response and biosecurity, convenes high-level meetings on planetary threats, leads the Center for Pandemic Research at ISERP and is an Associate Director in the Program in Vaccine Education at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. With the Wellcome Trust's Sir Jeremy Farrar, Wilmot co-chairs VacTask, an advisory body to African governments pursuing sustainable vaccine manufacturing on the continent. He co-convenes the Schmidt Futures supported Columbia-Witwatersrand Vaccine Safety and Confidence-Building (VacSafe) Working Group. Wilmot serves as a senior consultant in biosecurity to the Washington DC based Nuclear Threat Initiative Bio; and as a Special Advisor to the Africa-CDC/G7-led Global Partnership's Signature Initiative on Biosecurity in Africa (SIBA). He is also an Honorary Professor of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand. Wilmot was previously a Member of Parliament (South Africa) and opposition spokesperson on health. He is the author and/or editor of 17 books that include the policy-oriented Vital Signs: Health Security in South Africa (2020) and a co-edited collection of Nelson Mandela's presidential speeches Nelson Mandela In His Own Words (2003) given to the late President on his 85th birthday.

Job Titles:

• Senior Lecturer
• Registered Pharmacist
• Senior Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy, University of Nairobi

Dr Eric Guantai, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy, University of Nairobi. Dr. Guantai is a registered pharmacist, having received his Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Nairobi. He went on to receive his PhD (Medicinal Chemistry/Pharmacology) from the University of Cape Town. Dr. Guantai has broad expertise and research interests. He has strong interest in early stage drug discovery research (design, synthesis and biological evaluation of bioactive compounds) aimed at identifying hit and lead compounds of interest that could feed the drug discovery pipeline for infectious diseases, particularly malaria. He is also strongly involved in pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacovigilance research and activities in Kenya - he supports the training of experts in this field at the University of Nairobi, and is active in pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacovigilance research involving studying the utilization of medicines in populations, exploring the determinants of beneficial and adverse effects of medicines, and the assessment of programmatic efforts to improve medication use in a population. He is a member of several pharmacovigilance expert advisory committees of the Ministry of Health, Kenya, including the National Vaccine Safety Advisory Committee (NVSAC), and the Pharmacovigilance Expert Review & Advisory Committee

Job Titles:

• Medical Doctor and Specialist
• Senior Lecturer Extraordinary, Division of Health Systems and Public Health, Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University

Heinrich C. Volmink is a medical doctor and specialist in public health medicine. He currently consults as Public Health Specialist Advisor to Anglo American plc. He is also a board member of OUTA, an anti-corruption civil society organization in South Africa. Heinrich previously served as a Member of Parliament (MP) in National Assembly of South Africa. He is a Senior Lecturer Extraordinary in the Division of Health Systems and Public Health (Department of Global Health) of Stellenbosch University. Heinrich holds a professional medical degree (Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine), as well as masters degrees in public administration (University of Warwick) and medicine (University of the Witwatersrand) - both earned with distinction - and is a Fellow of the College of Public Health Medicine (SA).

Professor Janan Dietrich PhD (she/her) is an award winning and leading social and behavioural sciences Wits Researcher, the Director of the Bio-Behavioural Research Division at the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU) and co-founder of the newly formed African Social Sciences Unit of Research and Evaluation (ASSURE) of the Wits Health Consortium. As the PHRU'S lead social scientist, she has been involved in health research for almost 17 years with specific expertise in HIV vaccines clinic research. Dietrich was also awarded funding through the Wits African Leadership in Vaccinology Expertise (ALIVE) consortium to understand attitudes of healthcare workers about COVID-19 vaccines. In 2020/2021 she won a Great Leap Forward: Championing Health Innovation Award from the Wits Health Consortium. Prof Janan is affiliated with the Health Systems Research Unit of the SAMRC and was the co-chair of the Southern African Social and Behavioural Group of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN). She has a total of 90 peer reviewed publications, including 36 first author and senior author peer reviewed publications. Prof Janan is a research psychologist working within clinical research and biomedical sciences.

Job Titles:

• Senior Advisor Scientific Affairs, Association of Public Health Laboratories, Washington DC., USA

Jill Taylor received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Queensland, Australia. Her early work was in industry, in the development of veterinary vaccines. In 1999, she joined the Wadsworth Center, became Deputy Director in 2005 and Director in 2012. In this role, Jill had oversight of all aspects of the state public health laboratory's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York State. After leaving state service at the end of September, 2020, she joined the Association of Public Health Laboratories as Senior Adviser for Scientific Affairs. Her scientific interests are in the use of novel technologies and bioinformatic analytical methods to improve the nation's public health response to emergent pathogens.

Job Titles:

• Associate Program Officer, Insights at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Job Titles:

• Associate at Schmidt Futures
• Associate, Schmidt Futures. Oxford University, Oxford, UK

Joshua Nott is an Associate at Schmidt Futures where he works on institutional strategic planning, the implementation and evaluation of priority projects, budgeting, and talent management. Joshua joined Schmidt Futures from the Rhodes Trust where he worked on the establishment of Rise. A native of South Africa, Joshua is passionate about African public policy challenges with a particular interest in Southern and East African development and integration. His policy experience includes time with the Global Economic Governance Programme at Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government, the Institute of African Alternatives in Cape Town, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington D.C. Joshua holds a Masters of Public Policy (with Distinction) and an MSc in African Studies from the University of Oxford where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. While at Oxford, Joshua represented the University's Men's Water Polo team achieving his Oxford Blues. In addition to his postgraduate qualifications, Joshua holds a Bachelor of Laws (with Distinction) and a Bachelor of Social Science (with Distinction in Political Studies) from the University of Cape Town.

Job Titles:

• Associate Dean
• Co - Director
• Director

Dr. Stanberry is the Associate Dean for International Programs and Director of the Programs in Global Health at Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Previously he served as the Reuben S. Carpentier Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, and Pediatrician-in-Chief of the NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital (February 2008 - June 2018); the John Sealy Distinguished Professor and Chairman of Pediatrics and Director of the Sealy Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (October 2000 - February 2008); and the Albert B. Sabin Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Cincinnati Children's Medical Center and University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (June 1995 - October 2000). He has served on numerous advisory boards and review panels including serving as the chair of the Vaccine Study Section and the Pediatrics Review Panel at the National Institutes of Health. He has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, numerous vaccine, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He is a pioneer in the areas of therapeutic vaccine development to control chronic viral diseases, topical microbicides/pre-exposure prophylaxis for the prevention of reproductive tract infections, and the development of herpes simplex virus and influenza virus vaccines. He has extensive experience in drug and vaccine development ranging from preclinical animal model studies through phase 3 multinational clinical trials. Dr. Stanberry has authored over 200 scientific articles and chapters. He is the author of a book for the general public entitled, "Understanding Herpes" University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi (1st edition 1998, 2nd edition 2006). He is the editor or co-editor of five textbooks including: "Genital and Neonatal Herpes" John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, London (1996), "Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Vaccines, Prevention, and Control" Academic Press, Ltd., London (1st edition 2000, 2nd edition 2012), "Vaccines for Biodefense and Emerging and Neglected Diseases, London, Elsevier (1st edition 2009, 2nd edition anticipated 2020). "Understanding Modern Vaccines" Elsevier (2011) and "Viral Infections of Humans: Epidemiology and Control," (5th edition 2014, 6th edition anticipated 2020). His current work focuses on the preparedness of children's hospitals globally to prevent, detect, and respond to infections with pandemic potential. Associate Dean for International Programs and Director of the Programs in Global Health, Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Job Titles:

• Head of Climate Impacts at the Wellcome Trust

Madeleine Thomson Ph.D is the Head of Climate Impacts at the Wellcome Trust; a politically and financially independent foundation which supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. Prior to this role she was the interim Head of Our Planet Our Health at Wellcome. The Trust support researchers, policy makers & the public in tackling today's health challenges including those associated with climate change. Dr Thomson is also a visiting Professor at Lancaster University, UK and an Emeritus professor at Columbia University, New York where she previously held senior research positions at the International Research Institute (IRI) for Climate and Society and the Mailman School of Public Health. While at IRI she served as Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Early Warning Systems for Malaria and Other Climate-Sensitive Diseases (including meningococcal meningitis and ZikaV) and was co-chair of the cross Columbia working group on global health security. Originally trained as a field entomologist she spent much of her early career undertaking operational research to support large-scale health interventions in Africa (e.g. the national impregnated bednet programme in The Gambia). She was educated at the University of Sheffield (BSc), Imperial College London (MSc) and the University of Liverpool (PhD).

Job Titles:

• Leader
• Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Dept of Medicine General Med, and Chief Executive Officer, Genosity Inc., New York City, USA

Dr. Marc Grodman has been a leader in driving innovation in new critical areas of diagnostic testing. As the founder of BioReference in 1981, he oversaw unprecedented organic growth while fostering a culture of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit that led to the evolution of a small regional clinical laboratory into one of the largest clinical laboratories in the US with annual sales approaching $1B. He also led GeneDx, a subsidiary of BioReference since 2006 to become world-renowned provider of genetic and genomics testing. BioReference was acquired by OPKO Health in June 2015. Throughout his career, Dr. Grodman has driven innovation in new critical areas of diagnostic testing, bringing clinically relevant information to physicians, as well as formatting data to enhance patient care and scientific advances. Leading a team of premier scientists, Dr. Grodman has created innovative programs in the areas of cancer, genetics and women's health. Dr. Grodman obtained his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, attended Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and was a Primary Care Clinical Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital. Since 1983 he has served as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Columbia University Medical Center and was recently elected to the Board of Trustees at the New York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Grodman is the former Chairman and Director at the American Clinical Laboratory Association where he led the industry on numerous critical issues and served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Health Care Leadership Council where he was Chairman of the CEO Patient Safety and Quality Task Force.

Job Titles:

• Surgeon
• Emeritus Professor, University of the Witwatersrand, WITS Consortium, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Martin Veller, a vascular surgeon, is the past dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of the Witwatersrand (June 2014 to December 2020). Prior to this, he was the Professor and Head of the Department of Surgery, (November 2001 to February 2013) and the head of the Division of Vascular Surgery (January 1992 to June 2014).

Job Titles:

• Research Associate, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College, London

Oliver Watson is a Schmidt Science Fellow at the Medical Research Council Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London. Oliver leads the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team's modelling efforts in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. As part of this role, he has supported pandemic response plans with ministries of health and health agencies in Colombia, Nigeria, Senegal, Malawi, Syria, Sudan and Indonesia. Oliver has worked with the Clinton Health Access Initiative to support the use of COVID-19 model-based inputs in the World Health Organization Essential Supplies Forecasting Tool and works closely with the Health Systems Governance and Financing division at the WHO to support the generation of resource needs for an effective COVID-19 response in LMIC countries. As the pandemic involved, Oliver led development of models to consider the impact of vaccine rollout, developing open access tools for ministries of health to facilitate health planning and procurement. This work has been supported by the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. Outside of COVID-19, Oliver works primarily on malaria and is a member of the Bill and Melinda Gates funded Malaria Modelling Consortium and has helped design WHO malaria policy guidance surrounding antimalarial and diagnostic resistance.

Job Titles:

• Professor

Omu Anzala is a Professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and Director of the Kenya AIDS Vaccine Initiative (KAVI) - Institute of Clinical Research (KAVI - ICR) at the School of Medicine, College of Health Science, University of Nairobi. He holds a MBChB (University of Nairobi); a Diploma in Epidemiology (Tufts University) and a PhD (University of Manitoba) in medical microbiology and infectious diseases. He has been PI or co-PI for 11 IAVI-funded HIV vaccine trials in adults and the first pediatric HIV vaccine trial in Kenya. Professor Anzala has a distinguished publishing record in infectious diseases and vaccinology.

Job Titles:

• Special Lecturer in Pediatrics, Dept Pediatrics Infectious Disease
• Specialist

Dr. Philip LaRussa is a pediatric infectious disease specialist with four decades of experience in clinical and epidemiological infectious diseases research in local and global settings. He received an M.D. degree from the Università degli Studì in Bologna, Italy in 1978, completed residency training in Pediatrics (1978-1981), and a fellowship training in pediatric Infectious diseases (1981-1981) at New York University-Bellevue Hospital Medical Center, New York. He was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, New York University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases, in New York from 1983-1986. From 2000-2019, he was Professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University School of Medicine, and since 2019, he is emeritus Professor of Pediatrics at the same institution. His research interests include the pathogenesis, immune response, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of varicella zoster virus infections in children. He developed the first PCR assay to distinguish varicella vaccine virus from wild-type strain, which allowed the accurate differentiation of adverse events due to the vaccine from complications of wild-type infection, and described the effectiveness of varicella vaccine in healthy and immunocompromised hosts. He also described important co-factors influencing the perinatal transmission of HIV and outcomes of perinatally infected infants. He was the principal investigator for the Women and Infants Transmission Study (WITS IV: 2001-2007), and of the NIH-funded International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent Clinical Trials site at Columbia University Medical Center and director of its the on-site retrovirus study laboratory from 2006-2013. Since 2001, his research has focused on immunization safety issues, and has been the Principal Investigator for the CDC-funded Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment (CISA) Center at Columbia University Medical Center. During the last ten years he has also focused on capacity assessment, and capacity building research projects in sub-Saharan Africa, and has recently completed a study of capacity in 24 hospitals that care for children in sub-Saharan Africa. He has been a member of numerous national and international advisory committees including the Brighton Collaboration Working Group for development of case definitions for smallpox vaccine associated adverse events (2003-2005), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Subcommittee on varicella vaccination (2004-2006), the F.D.A. Advisory Committee on Vaccines & Related Biological Products (2004 - 2008), Chair of the NIH NIAID Influenza Research Collaboration (NIRC) Combination Therapy Focus Group (2009 - 2010), Member, U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, National Vaccine Advisory Committee [NVAC] (2011 - 2015), Co-chair, U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) Global Immunization Working Group (2012-2014), Member, W.H.O. Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization Working Group on Varicella & Zoster vaccines (2012 - 2014), and Member, F.D.A., Pediatric Advisory Committee (2012 - 2016). He is the author of 164 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and 28 chapters in textbooks.

Job Titles:

• Head, Division of Public Health Institutes and Research, Africa Center for Disease Control ( Africa CDC ), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Raji Tajudeen MD, MPH, FWACP, is a Medical Doctor with postgraduate qualifications in Pediatrics and Public Health. He is a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians and African Public Health Leaders Fellow of the Chatham House Royal Institute of International Affairs, UK. He has years of senior level experience in Child Health, Health System Management, Health Diplomacy, Maternal and Child Health, and Health in Humanitarian Emergencies. He has worked in different settings in the developing world; Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia.

Job Titles:

• Associate for the Rhodes Trust
• Strategic Projects Associate, the Rhodes Trust

Romina currently serves as the Strategic Projects Associate for The Rhodes Trust. As part of this role, she is a lead member of the Global Health Security Consortium, a joint initiative of the University of Oxford, the Tony Blair Institute and the Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine, working on pandemic response strategies, preparedness and global health equity. She earned her medical degree at the University of the Witwatersrand during which time she also completed an advanced clerkship at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She completed her post graduate medical training in the Department of Internal Medicine at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital and, while there, she co-founded an initiative for junior doctors to work with provincial government to improve patient care. She earned a DPhil (PhD) in Clinical Neurosciences from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar and worked as a clinical fellow at the John Radcliffe Hospital. Her research has been published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals and her experience includes clinical medicine, translational clinical research and clinical trials.

Job Titles:

• Co - Director
• Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Shabir Madhi is Professor of Vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; and co-founder and co-Director of the African Leadership Initiative for Vaccinology Expertise (ALIVE). He currently also holds the positions of Director of the South African Medical Research Council Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytical Research Unit (VIDA) and is Research Chair in Vaccine Preventable Diseases of Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation. He is the National Principal Investigator and Protocol co-Chair of the first two COVID-19 vaccine studies being undertaken in South Africa.

Job Titles:

• Professor of Medical Psychology

Professor of Medical Psychology (in Pediatrics and Psychiatry) and Vice Chair of Faculty Development, Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Job Titles:

• Senior Director of Biology and External Innovation, Gilead Sciences

Tariro Makadzange is an Infectious diseases and Viral/Vaccine immunologist. She earned a BA at Smith College, an MD at Harvard Medical School and a D.Phil from Oxford University. Dr. Makadzange trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington and Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital where she later joined the faculty. Her research has focused on HIV immunology, clinical trials and implementation science. She has been engaged in training and mentoring HIV clinicians and researchers and co-established one of the largest HIV treatment programs in Zimbabwe. She has worked in industry and academia in early and late phase clinical trials, and vaccine development.