John Aitchison, Ph.D.
President, Center for Infectious Disease Research
He can be reached through his media contact: May Wildman at mwildman@feareygroup.com, phone 206-343-1543
Expertise: Global health issues impacting children in poverty, especially vector-born diseases like malaria. He specializes in systems biology approaches for developing infectious disease vaccines, treatments and diagnostics.
Richard Webby, Ph.D.
Director, World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Studies on Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds and member of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital faculty
Email: richard.webby@stjude.org and through his media contact, Marvin Stockwell: marvin.stockwell@stjude.org, 901-595-6384
Expertise: Long-time expert on influenza activity and the human-animal interface. His work involves virologic and serologic surveillance activities in animal and human populations to determine the prevalence of influenza viruses circulating.
Amesh Adalja, M.D., FIDSA
Senior Associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Health Security and a member of the City of Pittsburgh’s HIV Commission.
Email: aadalja1@jhu.edu
Expertise: AIDS/HIV and infectious diseases. Adalja is a well-known national infectious disease expert from serving on numerous government panels to develop guidelines for treating infectious diseases and public emergencies. He is currently a member of the National Quality Forum’s Infectious Disease Standing Committee.
James Blumenstock
Chief Program Officer, Health Security at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
Email: jblumenstock@astho.org
Expertise: Local and state public health preparedness efforts for everything from seasonal flu immunization efforts, to readiness for epidemics and other public health emergencies. (Can find bio here, not on ASTHO website, scroll down)
Peter Daszak, Ph.D
President, EcoHealth Alliance
Email: daszak@ecohealthalliance.org
Expertise: Global health and zoonotic diseases. Through running his organization and research, Daszak is one of the leading voices on the link between global trade and disease emergence.
Asha George, Dr.P.H.
Co-director of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense
Email: asha.george@biodefensestudy.org
Expertise: Federal budget and biosecurity. A researcher and former staff member of a House of Representatives subcommittee on Homeland Security, who understands how Congress works and how to advocate for biosecurity policies in Washington. She has also served as a military intelligence officer for the U.S. Army.
Lawrence Gostin, J.D., L.L.D.
Professor of Global Health Law at Georgetown University School of Law and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on Public Health Law & Human Rights
Email: gostin@law.georgetown.edu
Expertise: Recognized specialist on public health laws such as quarantine regulations. He was the author of the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, which aimed to help state legislatures to revise public health laws to control epidemics.
Rebecca Katz, Ph.D, M.P.H.
Co-Director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University and associate professor of international health
Email: Rebecca.Katz@georgetown.edu
Expertise: Global health security. Researcher on biosecurity issues and consultant to the U.S. Department on State on implementing global health security initiatives preparing nations to respond to a potential pandemic
Ali S. Khan, M.D., M.P.H.
Dean of the Department of Epidemiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Pubic Health and former director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response at the Centers for Disease Control and Infection
Email: ali.khan@unmc.edu
Expertise: Emerging infectious diseases, bioterrorism and global health terrorism. Khan has decades of on-the-ground experience tracking deadly disease outbreaks around the planet. He was also part of the team that investigated the U.S. mail anthrax attacks following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. He is author of “The Next Pandemic: On the Frontlines Against Humankind’s Gravest Dangers” published in 2016.
Tom Ingelsby, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer and director of the Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Health Security
Email: tingelsby@jhu.edu
Expertise: Federal budget and the U.S.’s pandemic preparedness readiness. In addition to running the center, Ingelsby serves as chair of the board of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response.
Ambassador John E. Lange (Ret.)
Senior fellow, Global Health Diplomacy, United Nations Foundation
Email: jlange@unfoundation.org
Expertise: Pandemic influenza and health as a global diplomatic issue. Lange was President George W. Bush’s Special representative on Avian Influenza and Pandemic flu at the U.S. Department of State. He also worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as its Africa specialist and served as U.S. ambassador to Botswana. (1999-2002)
Marc Lipsitch, Ph.D
Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics
Email: mlipsitc@hsph.harvard.edu
Expertise: Modeling emerging infectious disease outbreaks. He works with local, state, federal and international public health agencies on antibiotic resistance, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), pandemic and seasonal flu.
Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and a member of the National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity.
Email: mto@umn.edu
Expertise: A prolific researcher and recognized leader on national and global biosecurity and public health issues, particularly in pandemic preparedness. He previously served in many roles at the Minnesota Department of Public Health and was director of the National Institutes of Health supported Minnesota Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance. He co-authored “Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs,” a book about the many potential ways the U.S. could face a pandemic and published in early 2017.
Tara O’Toole, M.D., M.P.H.
Executive vice president of In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit venture capital firm that invests in security companies, senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Health Security and former Under Secretary of Science & Technology at the Department of Homeland Security (2009-2013)
Email: totoole@iqt.org
Expertise: Research and technology in bioterrorism defense. She has also played a role in shaping public policy leaders’ understanding of the nature and consequences of major biological threats, both natural and man-made to the U.S.