People in the news - April 2014

Birx confirmed as new U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator

The U.S. Senate has approved the nomination of Dr. Deborah L. Birx to be U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, a position previously held by Ambassador Eric Goosby. Birx is a veteran AIDS researcher who currently heads the CDC's division of global HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Deborah L. Birx

Fogarty adds three new advisory board members

Fogarty has announced the appointment of three new members to its advisory board. The panel is comprised of researchers, policymakers and others involved in global health who can provide strategic advice to Fogarty on its policies, programs and other matters.

Dr. Joseph C. Kolars, a Fogarty grantee, is Senior Associate Dean for Education and Global Initiatives and professor at the University of Michigan. He has consulted for the Medical Education Partnership Initiative and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr. Wafaa M. El-Sadr, a Fogarty grantee, is professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University. She founded the university's Mailman School of Public Health program that provides family-centered care and services to HIV/AIDS patients.

Dr. J. Stephen Morrison is Senior Vice President and Director of the Global Health Policy Center at the nonprofit Center for Strategic and International Studies. He testifies before Congress, directs high-level task forces and commissions, and presents ideas in the media.

New Fogarty advisory board members, Drs. Joseph C. Kolars,
Wafaa M. El-Sadr and J. Stephen Morrison.

Gray to lead South Africa's research council

The South African Medical Research Council (MRC) has selected Dr. Glenda Gray as its president. A former Fogarty trainee and longtime NIH grantee, Gray heads Witwatersrand University's Perinatal HIV Research Unit and is director of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network's Africa programs.

Dr. Glenda Gray

US selects Kolker as senior global health diplomat

Ambassador Jimmy Kolker has been named the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, following his role as principal deputy. He previously had a 30-year career at the State Department, including ambassadorships in Uganda and Burkina Faso.

Ambassador Jimmy Kolker

Gates Foundation picks Desmond-Hellmann as CEO

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has named Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellmann, an oncologist, as its new chief executive officer. Previously chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco, she is an expert in public health, drug development, regulatory innovation and health policy.

Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellmann

NIH expert in norovirus and rotavirus dies

Pioneering NIH virologist Dr. Albert Kapikian, who identified norovirus and drove research for the first rotavirus vaccine, has died at age 83. He headed a laboratory at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 45 years.

Dr. Albert Kapikian

Levine is honored by tropical medicine societies

Former Fogarty grantee Dr. Myron M. Levine of the University of Maryland has received the 2013 Donald Mackay award for outstanding work in tropical occupational health, from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and its U.K. sister society.

Dr. Myron M. Levine