Appendix D
Committee Member Biosketches
Jendayi E. Frazer, Ph.D. (Co-Chair), is adjunct senior fellow for Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Dr. Frazer was a distinguished public service professor at Carnegie Mellon University from 2009 to 2014, where she was on the faculty of Heinz College’s School of Public Policy and Management. Her research focused on strengthening regional security cooperation and economic and political integration in Africa. She was the director of Carnegie Mellon’s Center for International Policy and Innovation (CIPI), which focuses on using technology and applying innovative solutions to core issues of development and governance in Africa. The author of and contributor to a number of articles, journals, and books, she is the co-editor of Preventing Electoral Violence in Africa (2011), which grows out of her work with CIPI. Dr. Frazer served as the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 2005 to 2009. She was special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council from 2001 until her swearing-in as the first woman U.S. ambassador to South Africa in 2004.
She previously served in government from 1998 to 1999 as a CFR International Affairs Fellow, first at the Pentagon as a political-military planner with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, working on West Africa during Nigeria’s transition to civilian rule, and then as director for African affairs at the National Security Council, working on Central and East Africa. Dr. Frazer was also an assistant professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and assistant professor at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of International Studies. She has been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award bestowed by the Secretary of State
in recognition of her public service. In 2010, she was given the distinction of Dame Grand Commander in the Humane Order of African Redemption by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She was also honored with the 2008 Distinguished Leadership Award from Boston University’s African Presidential Archives and Research Center. Frazer received her B.A. in political science and African and Afro-American studies, M.A. in international policy studies and international development education, and Ph.D. in political science, all from Stanford University.
Valentin Fuster, M.D. (Co-Chair) serves the Mount Sinai Medical Hospital as physician-in-chief, as well as director of Mount Sinai Heart, the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute, and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health. He is also the Richard Gorlin, MD/Heart Research Foundation Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Fuster was the President of Science and is now the General Director of the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) in Madrid, Spain, and is also chairman of the Science, Health and Education Foundation (SHE). The innumerable positions he has held include those of president of the American Heart Association, president of the World Heart Federation, member of the National Academy of Medicine, member of the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and president of the training program of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Fuster received his medical degree from the University of Barcelona. He has served as professor in medicine and cardiovascular diseases at the Mayo Medical School and the Medical School of Mount Sinai Hospital, and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
In 1994, he was named director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai, a post he has combined since 2012 with that of physician-in-chief of the hospital. Dr. Fuster has been named Doctor Honoris Causa by 33 universities around the world, and has earned three of the most important awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is an author of more than 900 scientific articles in international medical journals, and has published as lead editor of two leading books on clinical cardiology and research. He was also named editor-in-chief of the journal Nature Reviews in Cardiology. Dr. Fuster, in addition to his dedication to research, is strongly committed to his responsibility to communicate to the public. This commitment has in the last 4 years produced six books. His vocation and the clear need to promote healthy lifestyle habits recently led to Dr. Fuster launching the Science, Health and Education Foundation (SHE), which is directed at improving public health, especially in the young.
Gisela Abbam, M.B.A., is global executive director for government affairs and policy for General Electric (GE) Healthcare. Ms. Abbam is responsible for the strategic direction of government affairs and policy for GE Healthcare, the $18 billion business unit of General Electric that provides transformational medical technologies and solutions to health customers in more than 100 countries. She works in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organizations to improve health outcomes. Furthermore, Ms. Abbam leads and drives a broad range of legislative and policy issues to shape global health policies. She is focused on addressing health needs of various countries. Ms. Abbam has written more than 40 briefings on various policy issues including health reform. Ms. Abbam is also currently the chair of the Global Diagnostic Imaging, Healthcare IT & Radiation Therapy Trade Association (DITTA) WHO Working Group. Ms. Abbam was previously head of government affairs for GE Healthcare for the United Kingdom and Ireland and successfully initiated an Early Diagnosis Campaign in collaboration with several charities (NGOs) to improve early diagnosis in the United Kingdom across all diseases, which gained attention by the prime minister and key members of Parliament. Due to her leadership, GE Healthcare won its first ever award for its contribution to improving stroke management. Ms. Abbam joined GE Healthcare in 2007 after 13 years working in the National Health Service and Local Government in the United Kingdom. Ms. Abbam was on the leadership team that set up the Centre for Public Health Excellence at the internationally acclaimed National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). She developed the Operating Model and Structure for the Centre. Until April 2010, Ms. Abbam served on the board of Dimensions UK (formerly Adepta), a health charity. She is currently a nonexecutive Director for Strong Tower Missionaries. Ms. Abbam holds an M.B.A. and an honors degree in education.
Amie Batson, M.B.A., is the chief strategy officer and vice president of strategy and learning at PATH. Ms. Batson is responsible for guiding PATH’s strategy, strengthening their partnerships and business relationships in the global health community, and contributing to their advocacy and policy priorities. Ms. Batson’s 20-year career in global health includes positions with WHO, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank, and most recently, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where she served as senior deputy assistant administrator for global health. During her 3-year appointment with USAID, Ms. Batson led the agency’s engagement in the president’s Global Health Initiative, represented the U.S. government on the board of the Gavi Alliance, and led the U.S. government team in co-convening the Child Survival Call to Action, which launched the global vision to end preventable child
deaths. Throughout her career in global health, Ms. Batson has been a leader in innovation. Her contributions to immunization and vaccine financing at the World Bank resulted in billions of dollars in new funding for global health and the vaccination of millions of children against polio, pneumonia, and other vaccine-preventable causes of death. Ms. Batson earned a B.A. in economics from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A. from the Yale University School of Management.
Frederick M. Burkle, Jr., M.D., M.P.H., DTM, is senior fellow and scientist, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University, and Harvard School of Public Health, and senior associate faculty and research scientist, the Center for Refugee & Disaster Response, Johns Hopkins University Medical Institutes. Since 2008 he has served as a senior international public policy scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Washington, DC. He served as deputy assistant administrator for the Bureau of Global Health at USAID, U.S. Department of State. He is currently an adjunct professor at Monash University Medical School, Melbourne, and James Cook University, Queensland, in Australia and Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, and retired professor of surgery, pediatrics, and tropical medicine at the University of Hawaii. Dr. Burkle is a graduate of Saint Michael’s College (1961) and the University of Vermont College of Medicine (1965), and holds a master’s degree in public health.
He is board qualified in Emergency Medicine, Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Public Health, and Tropical Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Burkle has worked in and consulted on numerous humanitarian emergencies and large-scale international disasters in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, and is currently a consultant for WHO-Health Action in Crises. Dr. Burkle was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2007. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Rescue Committee and the Scientific Advisory Board of the American Red Cross. A retired captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve he completed combat tours in the Vietnam (1968) and the Persian Gulf Wars with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Marine Divisions, and with the U.S. Central Command in Somalia.
Lynda Chin, M.D., is currently chief innovation officer and associate vice chancellor for health affairs, director of the Institute for Health Transformation at the University of Texas System. Dr. Chin is focusing on addressing the rising chronic disease burden that is threatening the health and productivity of Americans and the solvency of its health care system through innovative technology and business solutions and public–private partnerships. Throughout her career, Dr. Chin has championed a model
of integration, collaboration, and cooperation between the research and clinical care enterprises, as well as between public and private sectors. She was the scientific director of the Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and subsequently the Institute for Applied Cancer Science at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, an organization designed to bring together the best attributes of academia and industry in a new organizational construct to rapidly translate cancer genomics knowledge into effective therapeutic endpoints. In her current endeavor, Dr. Chin has been the architect behind a digital health infrastructure built on interconnected technology and service platforms developed by AT&T, IBM, and PwC, designed to support secure and private sharing of contextualized patient health profiles synthesized from not only electronic health record (EHR) data, but also real-world clinical data, patient-generated health data, and other data sources. Through such connectivity, Dr. Chin is convening an ecosystem of technology, service, retail, and health care stakeholders in both public and private sectors to collaborate in tackling the challenges of diabetes in an underserved community in South Texas.
Dr. Chin graduated with an M.D. degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and is a board-certified dermatologist. She conducted her clinical and scientific training at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she completed in parallel her residency training in the hospital and postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory. For 13 years, Dr. Chin was a professor of dermatology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School and a senior associate member of the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. Her research program spans the fields of transcription, telomere biology, cancer genomics, and personalized cancer medicine. Dr. Chin held multiple leadership roles in The Cancer Genome Atlas. She is a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the International Cancer Genome Consortium. Dr. Chin joined the MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2011 as the founding chair for the Department of Genomic Medicine, with a mission to bring to bear on the cancer crisis not only the transformative potential of genomics, but also of data, technologies, and innovative strategies. She led the development of MD Anderson Oncology Expert Advisor, an example of a cognitive expert system for democratization of clinical expertise for evidence-based care. Dr. Chin was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2012.
Stephanie L. Ferguson, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, is a consulting associate professor in the Stanford in Washington Program at Stanford University, professor of nursing in the School of Health Science and Human Performance at Lynchburg College, and frequent consultant and facilitator for WHO and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Since 2000, Dr. Ferguson has con-
tributed to various WHO resolutions and initiatives on “Strengthening Nursing and Midwifery,” progress reports, and recently the development of the Global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery (SDNM) 2016–2020. Dr. Ferguson is currently working with WHO to develop the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the SDNM 2016–2020 and the PAHO Strategic Direction for Nursing in the Americas. She is also Honorary Council Board Member for the G4 Alliance for Safe Surgical Care. Dr. Ferguson is a board member of the Bon Secours Health System, Inc.; member of the National Academy of Medicine; distinguished practitioner in the National Academies of Practice; and fellow of the American Academy of Nursing; where she serves as the chair of its Institute for Nursing Leadership’s National Advisory Council. Dr. Ferguson is a member of the Nursing Economic$ journal’s editorial board and the director of its Global Health Department, which includes the regularly featured column, “Global Health.”
She was the former director of the International Council of Nurses’ (ICN) Leadership for Change Program and the ICN-Burdett Global Nursing Leadership Institute. In 1996 and 1997, Dr. Ferguson was appointed a White House Fellow and worked with the Honorable Secretary Donna E. Shalala at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson appointed her in 2001 to serve on the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) at NIH. Dr. Ferguson also served on the HHS’s Health Resources and Services Administration Task Force for examining nursing’s workforce issues related to racial, ethnic, and gender diversity. She was selected by the U.S. Department of Defense in 2001 to attend its Airforce Air War College’s National Security Forum. In 2010–2011, HHS, the U.S. Department of State, and NINR/NIH appointed her to serve on the Global Advances in Practice and Research in Nursing (GAPRIN) program. GAPRIN was designed to build nurse capacity globally through evidence-based practice for President Obama’s Global Health Initiative (GHI). She was elected as a member of the Board of Trustees for the U.S. Catholic Health Association (CHA) and she served as a member of the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB). Dr. Ferguson is a widely sought after consultant and keynote speaker worldwide addressing various nursing, health professional, and global and domestic health issues. She has worked in the U.S. addressing global health issues with many federal agencies and organizations such as the Veterans Health Administration, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, the U.S. Public Health Nurse Corps, and the American Red Cross.
Lia Haskin Fernald, Ph.D., M.B.A., is a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. She holds a Ph.D. in international nutrition and child development from the University of London and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on
health management. Dr. Fernald was a Fulbright Scholar in Jamaica and has been working in the field of public health nutrition for more than 20 years focusing specifically on children in developing countries. Her work has focused primarily on how inequalities in socioeconomic position contribute to growth and developmental outcomes in mothers, infants, and children, and on how interventions can address socioeconomic and health disparities. Much of her work for the past two decades has centered on looking at the effects of interventions (e.g., conditional cash transfer programs, parenting programs, microcredit interventions, and community-based nutrition interventions) on child development and maternal mental health, particularly focused on low- and middle-income countries. She recently worked with a team of authors to write two review papers for The Lancet about strategies to address poor development among infants and children in low- and middle-income countries.
Peter Lamptey, M.D., Dr.P.H., is based in Accra, Ghana, and is a distinguished scientist/president emeritus at Family Health International 360 (FHI 360). He serves on the FHI 360 executive team that provides managerial, financial, and strategic leadership to FHI 360’s development programs in more than 55 low- and middle-income countries. Dr. Lamptey is also a part-time professor of Global NCD (noncommunicable disease) at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). He serves on the LSHTM Global NCD Advisory Board as the lead for the West Africa Hub on NCD for the LSHTM. He has served as a consultant to the WHO Global Coordinating Mechanism/NCD on the integration of NCD with HIV; sexual and reproductive health; maternal, neonatal, and child health; and primary health care. Dr. Lamptey is an internationally recognized public health physician and expert in communicable diseases and NCDs in low- and middle-income countries. With a career at FHI 360 spanning more than 30 years, Dr. Lamptey has been instrumental in establishing FHI 360 as one of the world’s leading international nongovernmental organizations in implementing communicable and noncommunicable programs in LMICs. He has a medical degree from the University of Ghana, an M.P.H. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Dr.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Lamptey serves on the Lancet Commission on the Future Health of Africa and served on the 2010 U.S. Institute of Medicine Committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease: Meeting the Challenges in Developing Countries.
Ramanan Laxminarayan, Ph.D., M.P.H., is director and senior fellow at the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) in Washington, DC, and a senior research scholar and lecturer at the Princeton Environmental Institute at Princeton University. He is also a distinguished professor
of public health at the Public Health Foundation of India, and affiliate professor at the University of Washington. Since 2005, Dr. Laxminarayan has worked to improve the understanding of antibiotic resistance as a problem of managing a shared global resource. His work encompasses extensive peer-reviewed research, public outreach, and direct engagement in 11 countries in Asia and Africa through the Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership. In 2003 and 2004, he served on the Institute of Medicine Committee on the Economics of Antimalarial Drugs and subsequently helped create the Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria, a novel financing mechanism for antimalarials. In 2014, Dr. Laxminarayan served on the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology’s antimicrobial resistance working group. Currently, he is a voting member of the U.S. Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance. He is a series editor of the Disease Control Priorities for Developing Countries, 3rd edition. An economist and epidemiologist by training, his research integrates the use of epidemiological models of infectious disease and drug resistance into the economic analysis of public health problems.
Michael H. Merson, M.D., is the founding director of the Duke Global Health Institute and the Wolfgang Joklik Professor of Global Health at Duke University. In addition, Dr. Merson is the university’s vice president and vice provost for global affairs and from 2010 to 2016 served as its vice chancellor for Duke-National University of Singapore affairs. Dr. Merson graduated from Amherst College (B.A.) and the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center. After serving as a resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he worked in the Enteric Diseases Branch at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and then served as the chief epidemiologist at the Cholera Research Laboratory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research focused on the etiology and epidemiology of acute diarrheal diseases, including cholera, in developing countries and on the cause of travelers’ diarrhea in persons visiting these countries. In 1978, he joined WHO as a medical officer in the Diarrheal Diseases Control Program. He served as director of that program from January 1980 until May 1990, from 1987 to 1990 as director of the WHO Acute Respiratory Infections Control Program, and from 1990 to 1995 as director of the WHO Global Program on AIDS.
In April 1995, he was appointed the first dean of the Yale School of Public Health, a position he held until December 2004. From 1999 to 2006, he was director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University. Dr. Merson has authored more than 175 articles, primarily in areas of disease prevention and global health policy. He is the lead editor of Global Health: Disease, Programs, Systems, and Policies, a leading global health textbook in the United States. He has served in advisory capacities for various United Nations agencies, international organizations, and foun-
dations and on several NIH review panels and academic advisory committees. He is a recipient of two honorary degrees and the Surgeon General’s Exemplary Service Medal and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Vasant (Vas) Narasimhan, M.D., is the global head of drug development and chief medical officer for Novartis. He is a member of the Executive Committee of Novartis. Dr. Narasimhan joined Novartis in 2005 and has held numerous leadership positions in development and commercial functions. Since 2014 he has been global head of development, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, a role he continues to hold alongside his other responsibilities. Dr. Narasimhan also served as global development head at Novartis Vaccines and earlier he led the Sandoz biosimilars and oncology injectables business unit where he oversaw the Sandoz biosimilars pipeline. Dr. Narasimhan also held commercial and strategic roles at Novartis. He was region head, Novartis Vaccines North America, and United States country president for Novartis vaccines and diagnostics. Before joining Novartis, Dr. Narasimhan worked at McKinsey & Company. Dr. Narasimhan received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and obtained a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He received his bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of Chicago. Dr. Narasimhan is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Michael T. Osterholm, Ph.D., M.P.H., is an internationally recognized expert in infectious disease epidemiology. At the University of Minnesota, he serves as a professor in the Schools of Public Health, College of Science and Engineering, and Medicine, and also serves as the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. From 2001 through 2005, Dr. Osterholm served as a special advisor to then-HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson on issues related to bioterrorism and public health preparedness. He was also appointed to the Secretary’s Advisory Council on Public Health Preparedness. During his 15 years as state epidemiologist at the Minnesota Department of Health, he led investigations into infectious disease outbreaks. Dr. Osterholm has been an international leader on the critical concern regarding preparedness for an influenza pandemic. Dr. Osterholm has also been an international leader on the growing concern regarding the use of biological agents as catastrophic weapons. He serves on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals and is a frequent consultant to WHO, NIH, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Defense, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is a fellow of the American College of Epidemiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Juan Carlos Puyana, M.D., is a professor of surgery, critical care medicine and clinical translational science; and a trauma/acute care surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a clinical investigator and has been the principal investigator of several programs on capacity building and eHealth from the Fogarty International Center of NIH. He has worked extensively in Latin America over the past 20 years. He was the secretary of the Pan-American Trauma Society from 2003 to 2010 and president of that society from 2011 to 2012. He is an international leader in trauma, injury and emergency surgery and has a wide understanding of barriers and possible solutions to conduct research in emergency, trauma, and acute care settings in low- and middle-income countries. He has actively participated in surveillance and registry designs for trauma in acute care surgery in Central and South America. He has had active projects and collaborative academic interactions with trauma and emergency experts in countries such as Colombia, Paraguay, Mexico, Ecuador, Honduras, and Guatemala, and most recently in Kenya and Mozambique. Dr. Puyana was a co-director of the surgical intensive care unit at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Boston. Dr. Puyana was born in Colombia where he finished medical school at Javeriana University before completing his residency training at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and his trauma fellowship at Yale University. Dr. Puyana is an active trauma and critical care surgeon working at the largest level 1 trauma center and acute care center in Pennsylvania. He participates in fellowship, resident, and student mentoring. He serves as vice chairman for Pennsylvania on the Committee on Trauma of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Puyana is involved in promoting research, educational opportunities, and clinical collaboration in Latin America.
