Gavin Yamey
Advisor Chair
Center for Policy Impact in Global Health

Gavin Yamey MD, MPH, MA is the Director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health based in DGHI. The Center is an innovative policy lab that addresses critical challenges in financing and delivering global health.

He trained in clinical medicine at Oxford University and University College London, medical journalism and editing at the BMJ and public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He was Deputy Editor of the Western Journal of Medicine, Assistant Editor at the BMJ, a founding Senior Editor of PLOS Medicine, and the Principal Investigator on a $1.1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the launch of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. In 2009, he was awarded a Kaiser Family Mini-Media Fellowship in Global Health Reporting to examine the barriers to scaling up low cost, low tech health tools in Sudan, Uganda and Kenya.

Dr. Yamey currently serves as a commissioner on The Lancet Commission on Tuberculosis. He previously served on two international health commissions, The Lancet Commission on Investing in Health and The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery. He has been an External Advisor to the WHO and to TDR, the Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. Dr. Yamey has published extensively on global health, neglected diseases, health policy, and disparities in health and has been a frequent commentator on National Public Radio. He directs the Global Health Track in Duke’s Program on Global Policy and Governance in Geneva.

Before joining Duke, Dr. Yamey led the Evidence-to-Policy Initiative in the Global Health Group at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and was an Associate Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the UCSF School of Medicine.

Karen Avraham
Advisor
Tel Aviv University

Professor Karen B. Avraham is Vice Dean at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and holds the Drs. Sarah and Felix Dumont Chair for Research of Hearing Disorders. She completed a B.A. in Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, a Ph.D. in Genetics at the Weizmann Institute, and post-doctoral training at the National Cancer Institute. She joined the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry in 1996 and is a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience and Safra Center for Bioinformatics. Professor Avraham leads the effort in the discovery of disease genes for hearing loss and epigenetics of the auditory system, with an emphasis on precision medicine. She has over 150 publications in international journals and has mentored 110 undergraduate, MSc, PhD, and MD-PhD students. Avraham was awarded the Sir Bernard Katz Prize (Humboldt Foundation, Germany), the Bruno Memorial Prize (Rothschild Foundation), the TEVA Prize for Groundbreaking Research in Rare Diseases, the Teva Founders Prize on Breakthroughs and most recently, the Beutler Research Program of Excellence in Genomic Medicine. She is President of the Scientific Committee of the Foundation for Hearing, based in Paris, the Israel Society for Auditory Research, and co-director of the Tel Aviv University-Aufzien Family Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease. She is a board member of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO) and of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). She directs the Single Cell Genomics Core at the Faculty of Medicine, the TAU Summer Research Program in the Sciences for international undergraduate students and coordinates international workshops and conferences, including the Hear@JAX Workshop in 2020 and the Human Genome Meeting in Tel Aviv in 2021.

Maureen M. Black
Advisor
University of Maryland

Maureen Black, Ph.D. is a distinguished fellow at RTI International and the John A. Scholl MD and Mary Louise Scholl MD Endowed Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. At the University of Maryland, she is the founder and director of the interdisciplinary Growth and Nutrition Practice and holds a primary appointment in the Department of Pediatrics and secondary appointments in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and Department of Medicine. Dr. Black has adjunct appointments in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Dr. Black is trained as a pediatric psychologist and conducts research in strategies to promote children’s nutrition and development and to prevent health disparities. She has conducted intervention trials with children exposed to environmental threats including prenatal drug exposure, failure to thrive, nutritional deficiencies, poverty, food insecurity, HIV, poverty, and risk of obesity. She works in low-income communities of Maryland and in low- and middle-income countries throughout the world (e.g., Bangladesh, India, Guatemala, eSwatini). Dr. Black has been an author on three series of papers on Early Child Development published in The Lancet (2007, 2011, and 2016-2017), serving as the lead author for the first paper in the 2016-2017 series, “Advancing Early Childhood Development: from Science to Scale.” That paper reviewed the scientific progress that has been made in global child development over the past 15 years, reported that 249 million children under age 5 years (43% of the children in the world) are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential based on stunting and severe poverty, and proposed an integrated framework of Nurturing Care beginning prior to birth to ensure children’s early health and development. As a principal investigator on Children’s HealthWatch, a network of public health researchers from five medical centers across the country, Dr. Black has documented the prevalence and negative consequences of food insecurity on children’s health and development. Following the validation of a 2-item screen for food insecurity, the Hunger Vital Sign, by the University of Maryland Children’s HealthWatch team, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement recommending that all pediatricians implement the screen to identify children in food insecure households. Dr. Black has received funding from multiple federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health; US Department of Agriculture; Maternal and Child Health Bureau; US Agency for International Development; and Center for Disease Control and Prevention. She has served as a regular member (4-year terms) of two NIH study sections and an ad hoc member on approximately 20 study sections. She has served as president of two divisions of the American Psychological Association and on advisory committees for multiple local, national, and international organizations, including NIH’s Science of Behavior Change Committee, UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank Group.

Robert Califf
Advisor
Duke University

Robert Califf, MD, MACC, is the Vice Chancellor for Health Data Science and the Donald F. Fortin, MD, Professor of Cardiology. He is also Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and remains a practicing cardiologist. Effective November 18, 2019, he will transition to a full-time role with the Alphabet Company, serving as Head of Medical Strategy and Policy and working across the Google Health and Verily enterprises, beginning November 18, 2019.

Dr. Califf was appointed Commissioner of Food and Drugs for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2016-2017 and served as Deputy Commissioner for Medical Products and Tobacco from February 2015 until his appointment as Commissioner in February 2016. Prior to joining the FDA, Dr. Califf was a professor of medicine and vice chancellor for clinical and translational research at Duke University. He also served as director of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute and founding director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute. A nationally and internationally recognized expert in cardiovascular medicine, health outcomes research, healthcare quality, and clinical research, Dr. Califf has led many landmark clinical trials and is one of the most frequently cited authors in biomedical science, with more than 1,200 publications in the peer-reviewed literature.

Dr. Califf is a Member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly known as the Institute of Medicine (IOM)) in 2016, one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine. Dr. Califf has served on numerous IOM committees, and he has served as a member of the FDA Cardiorenal Advisory Panel and FDA Science Board’s Subcommittee on Science and Technology. Dr. Califf has also served on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Library of Medicine, as well as on advisory committees for the National Cancer Institute, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Council of the National Institute on Aging.

He has led major initiatives aimed at improving methods and infrastructure for clinical research, including the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI), a public-private partnership co-founded by the FDA and Duke. He also served as the principal investigator for Duke’s Clinical and Translational Science Award and the NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory coordinating center and co-PI of the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute Network.

Christine K. Cassel
Advisor
University of California San Francisco

Christine K. Cassel, MD is a Visiting Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. She was previously the Planning Dean of the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine and the President and CEO of the National Quality Forum. She is a leading national expert in geriatric medicine, medical ethics, health policy and quality of care. Dr. Cassel was one of 20 scientists chosen by President Obama to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which advises the President on science, technology, and innovation relevant to responsible and effective policy.  Among her many professional achievements and honors, Dr. Cassel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, was President of the American College of Physicians, Chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine; President of the American Federation for Aging Research; and was a member of the Advisory Committee to the Director at the National Institutes of Health. She has served on the boards of directors of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, Premier Inc., and the Greenwall Foundation.

Howard Francis
Advisor
Duke University

Dr. Howard W. Francis, is the Richard Hall Chaney, Sr professor of Otolaryngology and interim chair of the Department of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences (HNS&CS) at Duke University Medical Center. As a neurotologist Dr. Francis’ clinical interests span the full scope of this subspecialty including the management of conditions of the ear, skull base and associated nervous system. His research interests include the determination of best practices of acoustic neuroma treatment, the examination of functional outcomes of cochlear implantation in young children and older adults, and the study of best practices in surgical education. He serves on editorial boards of the Cummings Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Text, the World Journal of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and Operative Techniques in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. He is a member of the Otolaryngology Residency Review Committee of the ACGME, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. He is the past president of the Society of University Otolaryngologists, and Education Director of the American Neurotological Society.

After completing his high-school education in Jamaica, and his bachelor’s degree at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Dr. Francis earned his medical degree from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health, Science and Technology at Harvard Medical School, and then completed his internship, residency and fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed his Master’s in Business Administration with a focus in medical services management at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. After 19 years on the faculty at Johns Hopkins during which he served as Residency Program Director, Director of the Johns Hopkins Listening Center and Vice Director of the Department, he was appointed the chief of HNS&CS at Duke in March 2017. Upon becoming the department of HNS&CS on July 1 2019, Dr. Francis was appointed the interim chair.

Michael Merson
Advisor
Duke-National University of Singapore Global Health Institute

Michael H. Merson, M.D., is the Wolfgang Joklik Professor of Global Health and the Director of the SingHealth Duke-National University of Singapore (NUS) Global Health Institute. He joined the Duke faculty in November 2006 as the founding director of the Duke Global Health Institute and served in that role through 2017. In addition, Dr. Merson was Vice Chancellor for Duke-National University of Singapore (NUS) Affairs until 2017 and the Vice President and Vice Provost for Global Affairs at Duke University until 2018.

In 1978, he joined the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Medical Officer in the Diarrheal Diseases Control Program. He served as Director of that Program from January 1980 until May 1990. In August 1987, he was also appointed Director of the WHO Acute Respiratory Infections Control Program. In May 1990, he was appointed as Director of the WHO Global Program on AIDS. This Program was operational worldwide and responsible for mobilizing and coordinating the global response to the AIDS pandemic.

In 1995, he joined Yale University School of Medicine as its first Dean of Public Health and as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. In 2001, he was named as the Anna M. R. Lauder Professor of Public Health in the Yale University School of Medicine. From 1999-2006, he also served as Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University, which undertakes research on HIV prevention in vulnerable and underserved populations in this country and abroad.

Dr. Merson has authored more than 180 articles, primarily in the area of disease prevention. He is the senior editor of Global Health: Disease, Programs, Systems, and Policies, which is a leading global health textbook in the United States. He recently co-authored the book The AIDS Pandemic: Searching for a Global Response, which examines the 36 year history of the global response to the pandemic. He has served in advisory capacities for UNAIDS, WHO, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, World Bank, World Economic Forum, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has two honorary degrees, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Jim Saunders
Advisor
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center

James E. Saunders is Professor of Otology/Neurotology at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center where he teaches aspects of otology and neurotology to medical students, residents and undergraduate students. He completed an M.D. at University of Oklahoma, his residency and a research fellowship in Otolaryngology at Duke University Medical Center, and a Research and Clinical Fellowship at the House Ear Institute. In addition to clinical practice, he has broad research interests and has published many articles on sudden sensorineural hearing loss, the microbiology of chronic otitis, and hearing loss genetics.

Dr. Saunders has been involved with many projects related to the etiology, prevention and treatment of hearing loss in the developing world including collaborations with the World Health Organization and the Global Burden of Disease Project. He is the past Chairman of the Humanitarian Efforts Committee of the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) and a co-founder of the Coalition for Global Hearing Health and Mayflower Medical Outreach, an organization that supports and trains otolaryngology and audiology providers in Nicaragua.

Devi Sridhar
Advisor
University of Edinburgh

Devi Sridhar is a Professor at the University of Edinburgh Medical School where she holds a Personal Chair in Global Public Health.  She is Founding Director of the Global Health Governance Programme and holds a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award.

Recipient of a Rhodes scholarship, Devi holds an MPhil and a DPhil from Oxford University as well as a B.S. from the University of Miami’s Honors Medical Program. Prior to her appointment at Edinburgh, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University and an Associate Professor in Global Health Politics and Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford University.

Devi is the author of two books: Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why? (OUP, 2017) and The Battle against Hunger: Choice, Circumstance and the World Bank (OUP, 2007) and has published her work in Nature, Science, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet and the British Medical Journal.

Devi has served on the Board of Save the Children UK, World Economic Forum Council on the Health Industry, Expert review group of the Wellcome Trust and Advisory Board of the Financial Flows Program at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME; UW-Seattle). She was Co-Chair of the Harvard School of Public Health/London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola. She is an editorial board member for the Journal of Public Health.