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Committee Biographies

David R. Franz (Co-chair from April 2019)

David R. Franz is an independent consultant. He served in the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for 23 of 27 years on active duty and retired as a colonel. He served as commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and as deputy commander of the Medical Research and Materiel Command. Prior to joining the Command, he served as group veterinarian for the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne). Dr. Franz was the chief inspector on three United Nations (UN) Special Commission biological warfare inspection missions to Iraq, and served as technical advisor on long-term monitoring. He also served as a member of the first two U.S.–U.K. teams that visited Russia in support of the Trilateral Joint Statement on Biological Weapons and as a member of the Trilateral Experts’ Committee for biological weapons negotiations. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on International Security and Arms Control. He previously served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Board on Life Sciences, and the Health and Human Services National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity. Dr. Franz also co-chaired the NASEM Committee on Strengthening and Expanding the Department of Defense’s Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. Dr. Franz holds a D.V.M. from Kansas State University and a Ph.D. in physiology from Baylor College of Medicine.

Gerald T. Keusch (NAM) (Co-chair from April 2019)

Gerald Keusch is professor of medicine and global health at Boston University, where he serves as an associate director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory. He is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases. His research has ranged from the molecular pathogenesis of tropical infectious diseases to field research in nutrition, immunology, host susceptibility, and the treatment of tropical

infectious diseases and HIV/AIDS. He has held faculty positions at Tufts University, where he was director of training programs in infectious disease. He served as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty International Center. Dr. Keusch is the recipient of three major awards from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (the Oswald Avery and Alexander Fleming awards for research and training excellence, and the Finland Lectureship). He attended Columbia College and earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), and co-chaired the 2017 National Academies’ report, Integrating Clinical Research into Emergency Response: The Ebola Experience.

Ronald M. Atlas (Chair, until April 2019)

Ronald M. Atlas was co-chair of the Public and Scientific Affairs Board Biodefense Committee of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and was professor of biology at the University of Louisville. He has served as president of ASM; as a member of the NIH Recombinant Advisory Committee; as chair of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Planetary Protection Committee; as chair of the Wellcome Trust Pathogens, Immunology and Population Health Strategy Committee; as a member of the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee; and as chair of the Board of Directors of the One Health Commission. He is author of nearly 300 manuscripts and 20 books, and has served on numerous National Academies committees. He is a fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology. Dr. Atlas is a pioneer of bioremediation and an expert on the clean-up of oil spills, and is also an expert in the detection of biothreat agents and the prevention of bioterrorism. He received his B.S. degree from the State University at Stony Brook, his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and his D.Sc. (honoris causa) from the University of Guelph.

Nesreen AL-Hmoud

Nesreen AL-Hmoud is the director of the Center for Excellence in Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Biotechnology at the Royal (Jordanian) Scientific Society. Dr. AL-Hmoud conducts research that focuses on the preservation of human health and biodiversity, specifically in the fields of biosafety, water and food safety, and the evaluation of risks from genetically modified organisms. She is particularly interested in

international scientific cooperation and works toward the development of scientific capacity that can benefit the broader scientific community, government agencies, local communities, and nongovernmental organizations in Jordan and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. She focuses on research that involves a holistic approach to microbiology, molecular biology, virology, toxicology, and ecology. She is a frequent participant at international biosafety meetings, and has attended international governmental meetings at the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and the United Nations 1540 Committee. Dr. AL-Hmoud received her B.S. in biology from the University of Jordan, and her M.Phil. and Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Abertay Dundee in Scotland.

David M. Barash

David Barash is the executive director of the Global Health Portfolio and chief medical officer for the GE Foundation. Dr. Barash is also co-chair of the Private Sector Roundtable, a collaboration of several multinational companies to support the work of the Global Health Security Agenda. He is a practicing emergency medicine physician with more than 30 years of experience. Prior to joining the GE Foundation, Dr. Barash was chief medical officer of Life Care Solutions. He was also founder and president of Concord Healthcare Strategies, where he provided strategic and operational expertise to medical technology investors and development-stage medical technology companies. He received his B.A. and M.D. degrees from Cornell University, and is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Kavita M. Berger

Kavita Berger is a scientist at Gryphon Scientific where she is building new programs on international bioengagement and science policy. She began her career in science and security policy in 2005 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), where she developed activities that engaged science policy and security experts on topics ranging from health security to biological weapons, enabling scientists to bring their knowledge and experience to current security policy dialogues and the security policy community to better understand the broader implications of science and technology. Dr. Berger has conducted forward-looking studies, such as the 2014 evaluation of the security implications of big data in the life sciences. She also has engaged

scientists across the MENA region and South Asia since 2009 to work together to prevent biosecurity threats. Her work in the MENA region promoted partnership and trust among U.S. and regional scientists to jointly reduce biological risks. Prior to joining AAAS, Dr. Berger conducted her post-doctoral research at the Emory Vaccine Center on preclinical research and development of HIV and smallpox vaccines. She received her B.S. in molecular genetics at The Ohio State University and her Ph.D. in genetics and molecular biology at Emory University.

Rear Admiral Kenneth W. Bernard

Rear Admiral Kenneth Bernard, U.S. Public Health Service (Ret.), is an independent consultant on security and health issues. He served as special assistant to President George W. Bush for biodefense on the Homeland Security Council from 2002 to 2005. Admiral Bernard chaired the White House Biodefense Policy Coordinating Committee, and drafted decision directives for President Bush on both “Biodefense for the 21st Century” and agricultural bioterrorism, and he was the White House point person on implementation of the Project Bioshield Act. After September 11, 2001, he created the position of special adviser for national security, intelligence, and defense to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Prior to this service, Admiral Bernard worked as a professional staff member in the U.S. Senate, served on President Clinton’s National Security Council staff, as the international health attaché at the U.S. Mission to the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, as the associate director for medical and scientific affairs in the Office of International Health at HHS, as international health policy adviser to the director of the U.S. Peace Corps, and as a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Admiral Bernard earned his M.D. from the University of California, Davis, and a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is board certified in internal medicine.

Gregory C. Gray

Gregory C. Gray is a professor at Duke University in the Division of Infectious Diseases of the School of Medicine, the Global Health Institute, and the Nicholas School of the Environment. He also serves part-time as a professor in the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, and as a professor of global health at Duke Kunshan University in China. Dr. Gray has conducted diverse epidemiological studies of infectious diseases for 25 years on five

continents. He has published more than 330 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts and book chapters. Much of his work has involved identifying risk factors for occupational diseases, particularly for infectious diseases in a wide variety of occupational groups. He has served on numerous national expert advisory committees including those associated with the U.S. Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, the Infectious Disease Society of America, and the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Gray earned his M.P.H. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and his M.D. from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Ambassador John E. Lange

Ambassador John E. Lange (Ret.) is senior fellow for Global Health Diplomacy at the UN Foundation. He has held leadership positions in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and the Measles & Rubella Initiative. Previously, he spent 4 years at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation engaging in high-level global health advocacy with African governments. Ambassador Lange had a distinguished 28-year career in the Foreign Service at the U.S. Department of State, including service as Special Representative on Avian and Pandemic Influenza, Deputy Inspector General, Deputy U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, Ambassador to Botswana, and Charge d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam during the August 7, 1998, terrorist bombing, for which he received the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award. Earlier, he had tours of duty in Geneva, Lomé, Paris, and Mexico City. Ambassador Lange co-chaired a NAM committee that issued a consensus report on investing in global health systems and authored a case study on pandemic influenza negotiations. He earned a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, an M.S. from the National War College, and a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Mobolaji Oladoyin Odubanjo

M. Oladoyin Odubanjo is the executive secretary of the Nigerian Academy of Science and the chairman of the steering committee of the International Network for Government Science Advice. Dr. Odubanjo is a fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health and the chairman of the Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria (Lagos Chapter). He was a medical officer in the employment of a state government in Nigeria which saw him work in five hospitals across the state. He has served on the Board of the Global Organisation for Maternal and Child Health USA. He is also an

advisor to the Centre for Palliative Care Nigeria, an organization at the forefront of establishing palliative medicine in Nigeria. Dr. Odubanjo earned his MBBS and his diploma in child health from the University of Ibadan, and his M.Sc. in public health from University College London’s Institute of Child Health.