IAVI Team

Mark comes to IAVI from Prova, a UK-based GMP and GLP compliant contract development organization, bringing 12 years experience in pharmaceutical quality assurance management. Mark's previous roles include 13 years in biopharmaceutical quality control for both production and R&D at the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research. As such he will also work closely with the QA team in IAVI to assist with quality audits of a variety of subcontractors for the R+D program.

Before joining IAVI Vaccine Preparedness Department, Ms. Bender worked for 3 years as Grants Manager in IAVI’s Resource Development department. Prior to IAVI, she served for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Central and West Africa. While in the Peace Corps she worked with rural villages on community health issues, including Guinea worm and AIDS prevention. Ms. Bender holds a Bachelors degree from Vassar College and a Masters degree in Public Health from Columbia University.

Ms. Tsedal Mebrahtu earned a Master's Degree in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Bachelor's Degree in Biochemistry from the University of California, Davis. Tsedal comes with over 5 years experience in managing clinical trials in Africa. She joins IAVI from the University of California, San Francisco where she has been working for over 2.5 years as a Project Manager based in Kampala, Uganda overseeing an HIV/malaria study in pediatric population, in addition to managing an HIV VCT study targeting TB patients in the referral hospital TB clinic.

Prior to Uganda, Tsedal worked in Malawi for several years for Johns Hopkins School of Public Health managing several multi-site clinical trials investigating the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. She has also worked in field trials looking at malaria in the West African country of Mali and several non-profits in California before starting her Master's program.

Before coming to IAVI, Ms. Nielsen worked for Case Western Reserve University as Project Manager in Uganda for the ALVAC HIV-1 preventive vaccine trial (canarypox vCP 205, HIVNET 007) and also served as Clinical Coordinator for a large HIV prevention study (hormonal contraceptives and their effect on HIV acquisition). Prior to that, she served as Clinic Manager/Clinical Trials Coordinator at the Incarnation Children's Center for children with HIV/AIDS in Harlem. In the early 1990s she served in Niger, West Africa, as a Peace Corps volunteer working with village health teams and traditional midwives on a maternal/child health and nutrition project. Ms. Nielsen was Field Coordinator on a project in West Virginia that provided health services to seasonal migrant farm workers. Also a freelance journalist, she was most recently published in Natural History Magazine.

Prior to joining IAVI Julia worked at several HIV research projects in Zambia and Rwanda (1999-2002), during which time she established the Center for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia on behalf of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, an NGO set up to manage multiple perinatal intervention trials and programs in Lusaka, Zambia. From 1994-1997 Julia was based in San Francisco and worked in the Public Policy Department at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, as a program evaluator with HIV Prevention Point, a needle exchange program in San Francisco, and as an HIV test counselor at the Center for AIDS Preventions Studies at UCSF. Julia has a Bachelor's degree in Ethics and a Master's in Public Health in Epidemiology and International Health.

Nadia joined IAVI in March 2005 after working for eleven years in Brussels where for the last three years she managed and implemented advocacy and lobbying strategies in the field of industrial and environmental policy of European Pulp & Paper Industry sector. She also provided input into the legal drafting process of European Institutions.

From 1997 to 2003 she worked as a political adviser in the European Parliament in the fields of social, economic, and external relations policies. Prior to this she worked as an EU consultant for the European Journalism Centre in Maastricht, after having an internship in the European Commission. She also participated as a conference speaker of DG Information of the Commission.

Nadia has a Masters degree in Modern Romance Languages, continued her post-graduate studies in International Politics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and gained an MBA in International Business Administration at the United Business Institutes in Brussels. In addition to her native German, Nadia is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Italian. Nadia is responsible for developing and implementing the policy advocacy strategy in Europe by collaborating with the other IAVI departments.

Marcel has worked for a Dutch mental health care institution in Holland as a business controller. Responsibilities included controlling budgets, auditing financial administration and financing health care. Advising managers on keeping within their budgets and meeting their production targets and advising management on financial policies as a particular interest and developing cost price models to support the distribution of budgets. Marcel has also been a Dutch government official making contracts with health care institutions buying health care for public access. These institutions are 99 % dependent on these subsidies. Other experience included working for a housing agency dealing with liquidity control, investment calculation, project administration and the annual report.

A clinical psychologist and HIV/AIDS counsellor, Ms. Suarez started working on HIV and AIDS in the early nineties, her main focus been the community response to the epidemic in her home country, Spain, and across the European continent. Before joining IAVI last May, Mrs. Suarez worked for 6 years as a treatment specialist and international advocacy officer at the Spanish HIV NGO Grupo de Trabajo sobre Tratamientos del VIH/SIDA (HIV/AIDS Treatment Working Group). Ms. Suarez is a member of the European Community Advisory Board of the European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) and has also joined its recently constituted Vaccine Working Group. In her capacity as European Programmes Officer at IAVI, Ms. Suarez responsibilities include the overseeing of IAVIs European Country Programmes, as well as maintaining and strengthening the AIDS vaccines advocacy network developed by IAVI and its partner NGOs across the old continent.

For 7 years Dani Vooijs was working for Eli Lilly as Senior CRA, Regional Clinical Coordinator and most recently as a Medical Liaison here in Holland. During this time, his responsibilities included, among others, planning, conducting and managing clinical trials including site and investigator identification and assessments, developing protocols and CRFs, training sites and CRAs regarding study operations as well as organizing and facilitating study start up and support meetings among trials sites and study teams. Dani has huge experience in the operational and conduct of clinical trials. His academic achievements include an M.Sc. in Human Medical Biology from the University of Utrecht and a B. Sc. in Laboratory Science/Medical Biology in Delft.

Dr. Van den Boom is a well-known social scientist and behavioral researcher. He has worked with the Netherlands Red Cross, most recently as Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer. In this position, Frans oversaw the development and management of the organization's programs, international policies and its 300-person staff. He has also served in key positions at the Blood Transfusion Council, the National Committee on Chronic Diseases and the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health. As a behavioral researcher, Frans has worked extensively in the field of AIDS. He is a founder of the AIDS Impact Conference and was co-chair of Track D for the 1992 International Conference on AIDS in Amsterdam.

Education University of Maastricht, Business Adminstration, specialisations in Management Sciences and Finance

Work University of Maastricht, researcher& developer new courses, Teacher Twynstra Gudde Management Consultants, Consultant Business Control and Finance ProControl, Director/Owner, design and imlpement project control & support processes

Hobbies Tennis, politics, movies&books&music

Ms. Bahri joined IAVI as staff in August, 2005, after serving as consultant for four years since the start of the India program. Prior to this, she was a documentation expert affiliated with various national and international NGOs. She received her Masters degree in human development and family studies from the M S University of Vadodara and her Bachelor’s degree in social studies from the University of Bombay.

Jean-Louis Excler, M.D., M.Sc, D.T.M.H. - Jean-Louis Excler, French citizen, pediatrician and epidemiologist, has been working extensively for the past 12 years on HIV vaccine clinical trials as Chief of the HIV vaccine clinical development for Pateur Merieux Connaught in France from 1991 to 1998 and as Scientific Director for the Henry M. Jackson Foundation in Rockville, Maryland in the US Army HIV Research Program and and in Bangkok Thailand from 1998 to 2001. Prior to this experience, he worked five years in Africa for the French Coopration and UNICEF as pediatrician and Public Health Officer in charge of EPI and Primary Health Care. He combines the rare experience of the Pharmaceutical Industry, US academic insitutions, and of the field in developing countries. He is also consultant for WHO on vaccine R&D and UNICEF for safe motherhood and HIV. Jean-Louis Excler is currently the Medical Director for IAVI India and lives in New Delhi.

Dr. Kochhar is the Medical Director for IAVI, India. She is also the Medical Monitor for the AIDS Vaccine Trials in India. She is responsible for the implementation and management of the Clinical Trials and studies in India. Dr Kochhar ensures adherence of clinical trial staff to Good Clinical Practices (GCP), Ethical Considerations of clinical trials and Care and Treatment of trial participants.

Dr Kochhar facilitates the Regulatory approval process in India for AIDS Vaccine clinical trials and studies and ensures regulatory compliance.

She is the IAVI India point person for facilitating the partnership with the Department of Biotechnology, India. Under the partnership, the Indian Medicinal Chemistry Program to accelerate immunogen design to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV and a study to generate broadly neutralizing antibodies is being conducted. This would facilitate the development of the next generation AIDS vaccines.

Prior to joining IAVI, she worked with Eli Lilly and Company, India providing Medical Support and was responsible for Medical Information Teams in 11 South Asian countries, including China. She won the Global Leadership Award in 2001 and 2002 for Global Medical Information 'Model The Values' and 'Harvest Learning and Share Ideas' from Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, U.S.A.

Dr. Sonali Kochhar received her M.D. in Pharmacology from Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi University, India. While pursuing her M.D. she received the 'Serviers Young Investigator Award', instituted by Institute de Recherches Internationales, Servier, France, awarded by ICPT-2000 for her clinical research.

Joined IAVI in October 2004 before that she worked with Population Council as Secretary to Head of the Programmes and before joining Population Council, Sunanda worked with Department of Biotechnology under UNDP sponsored Jute Biotechnology project for four years. She is a commerce graduate with 8 years of admin experience at the time of joining IAVI.

Mr. Charles Humphreys Mbale earned a Master's Degree in International Banking and Finance from the Washington International University and a Diploma in Accounting from the Malawi College of Accountancy (Public Accountants Examination Council of Malawi/ACCA) and Executive Certificate from Henley Management Collage. Mr. Mbale joins IAVI from Lanmetrixs (Pty) Ltd, Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) and British Department for International Development (DFID).

Charles has worked mainly in international development agancies for over eight years and looks forward to a new chapter in his life as part of a great team that is striving to ensure the development of safe, effective, accessible, preventive HIV vaccines for use throughout the world.

Jim joins IAVI having spent the previous 2 years as an independent consultant to Kendle International in Johannesburg where he managed global clinical trials in HIV/AIDS as well as other infectious diseases. He focused the remainder of his time on developing new clinical research sites in Africa. Before Kendle, Jim was a senior project manager for PPD Development in South Africa and Thailand working on US NIH sponsored trials for 7 years. Jim was a clinical research coordinator for the James N Gamble Institute of Medical Research in Cincinnati, Ohio for 14 years prior to joining PPD. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Biology from Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, KY and was a qualified respiratory therapist for a number of years.

Rachel is trained as a general nurse as well as a midwife. She also holds a BComm in HR studies and recently completed a certificate programme in Project Management. Rachel has extensive experience in data management and clinical coding having worked for a CRO and, most recently, the Perinatal HIV Research Unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. While at PHRU Rachel was in charge of data management for several IAVI trials. Rachel worked extensively as a general nurse in both public and private hospitals in South Africa prior to entering the pharmaceutical industry.

Labeeb Abboud joins IAVI with a wide-range of experience in the private and non-profit sectors. Prior to joining IAVI, Mr. Abboud served as General Counsel to Atriax, a London based electronic marketplace for foreign exchange products and related services. Previously he was Group Counsel to American Express Bank, Ltd., where he was responsible for supporting the international private bank and asset management divisions, as well as a wide range of transactional and regulatory work. He also worked as a corporate attorney with Shearman & Sterling, and with Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, in New York. In the non-profit sector, Mr. Abboud has worked as a legal and business consultant, primarily in the areas of the environment and microfinance, and has also provided pro bono legal support to a wide range of non-profit organizations. He is currently Vice Chairman of the Rainforest Alliance, a director of Shackleton Schools, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Georgetown University Law Center.

Joanne P. Alicea comes to IAVI from The New School where she most recently worked as their Employee Benefits Manager. She is a seasoned Human Resources professional with an extensive background in benefits management and administration, as well as other HR disciplines. Her experience has afforded her the opportunity to work in various business sectors and as such will bring that level of expertise to our organization as our Human Resources Department expands and continues to become more of a strategic partner in the organization. She holds a Bachelors degree in Sociology from Fordham and is currently pursuing her Master's degree in HR from The New School for Management and Urban Policy.

Prior to joining IAVI, Heather worked as a research scientist at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, on a broad range of pre-developmental projects including Alzheimer's Disease, Staphylococcus aureus, Meningococcal B, RSV, and HIV.

She holds a BS in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh. During her time there, she worked as a research technician in the departments of Otolaryngology and Neuroscience, investigating the role of the vestibular system on autonomic function.

Janet brings to IAVI over 20 years of Account Payable experience serving a diverse base of clients in a broad range of industries including construction, export and import mechanizing, banking, IT technology agency and communications.

Janet previously worked for M5 Networks, a communications company. Her function there was accounts payable and she also controlled all telephone service for all employees as well as commissions.

Prior to that, she worked at Techlink Agency for three years and there she handled all Accounts Payable, accounts receivables, consultant contracts and administration work as needed. Janet has also worked for Israel Discount Bank of NY for over 15 years.

Melinda joins us from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, NYC Chapter where she oversaw more than $12 million dollars in annual revenue as a bookkeeper. Prior to that, she spent two years at The East Harlem Council for Human Services, Inc and three years at Conde Nast Publications. Melinda has seven years of experience in accounting and has worked in the non-profit sector for the past three years.

Melinda is currently working on her B.A. in Finance at Berkeley College.

Ms. Becker joined IAVI in December, 2003, bringing extensive experience in international health and development, primarily in the area of sexual and reproductive health. Prior to joining IAVI, she served as the Senior Manager for HIV/STIs at EngenderHealth, where she established and developed the agency's HIV/AIDS program focusing on reducing women’s vulnerability to HIV and facility-based service delivery. Prior to joining EngenderHealth, she managed the HIV/STI program at the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region. She received her Masters degree in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health, and her Bachelors degree in Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Seth Berkley, President and founder of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, is a medical doctor specializing in infectious disease epidemiology and international health. Prior to founding IAVI in 1996, Dr. Berkley was the Associate Director of the Health Sciences Division at The Rockefeller Foundation. Dr. Berkley is also an adjunct Professor of Public Health at Columbia University and an adjunct Professor of Medicine at Brown University. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Brown University and trained in Internal Medicine at Harvard University. He has worked for the Center for Infectious Diseases of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and for the Carter Center, where he was assigned as an epidemiologist at the Ministry of Health in Uganda. He sits on a number of international steering committees and corporate and not-for-profit boards and has consulted or worked in over 25 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The author of over 85 publications, he has written extensively on infectious disease. He is also an opinion leader, speaking frequently on health technology, development, AIDS and international health.

Lisa Beyer joined IAVI after a distinguished career as an editor and international journalist. Most recently, she was an Assistant Managing Editor at TIME magazine. She managed the Nation, World and Society sections of TIME, after serving as the magazine’s Jerusalem bureau chief throughout the 1990s. Before joining TIME in 1988, she worked at the newsmagazine Asiaweek at its Hong Kong headquarters and later as its Singapore correspondent. She holds a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Texas.

Dr. Cesar Boggiano received his PhD in Biology from the University of Buenos Aires in 2003. His doctoral thesis was directed by Dr. Silvie Blondelle at the Torrey Pines Intitute for Molecular Studies (San Diego, CA). Boggiano’s research, during his time in San Diego, lead to the identification of HIV specific fusion inhibitors and optimized peptide immunogens for HIV using novel synthetic combinatorial libraries.

Later in his career, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Dan Littman at NYU as a postdoctoral fellow, where his research has focused on understanding the role of dendritic cells (DCs) during early HIV infection. He also studied the interactions of HIV with human immune cells isolated from mucosal tissues, confirming the relevance of primary mucosal DCs during the establishment and dissemination of HIV infection.

Karen comes to IAVI from the nonprofit and international development sectors. Prior to joining IAVI, she was the Executive Director of CTCNet, a nonprofit organization which supports over 1200 community technology centers around the country. From 1994-1996, Karen lived in Cape Town, South Africa working with various organizations on community development. Most recently, she conducted HIV/AIDS prevention workshops with community groups in Arusha, Tanzania. She has a Master’s degree in Intercultural Relations from Lesley University (Cambridge, MA).

Prior to joining IAVI, Darin worked in the Viral Immunology lab at the Lindsey F. Kimball Research Institute (LFKRI) located in New York City. He participated in the research of novel HIV entry inhibitors targeting gp41 envelope glycoprotein. Darin received his BS/MA degree in Medical Laboratory Science/Biotechnology at Hunter College in 2007.

Prior to joining IAVI, Cindy worked for Alliance Building Services as a Human Resources Coordinator. In this role, she was responsible for the HRIS system, payroll and billing support, benefits enrolment and recruitment of support and maintenance staff. She conducted new hire orientations on a weekly basis as well as maintaining the accuracy of the database system.

Cindy earned a BBA in Human Resources Management with a minor in Child Psychology from Baruch College in 2004.

John is a molecular biologist who joins IAVI from the Pharmaceutical Company Wyeth after 14 years of research on a broad range of pre-developmental projects including Rotavirus, Influenza, and more recently HIV. For the past 6 years, he has been developing Real-Time Quantitative RT-PCR assays to assign infectious potencies to Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV) based vaccines and vectors. He has also used this technology to identify and differentiate recombinant Indiana and New Jersey vectors expressing Gag which were used in Neurovirulence (NV) and Biodistribution Studies in Mice, Ferrets, and Macaques infected IM, IN, and IV and to detect and quantify VSV and HIV-Gag genomic and mRNA copies along with endogenous and exogenous controls extracted from a wide variety of animal tissues.

John received his MSc. in Molecular Biology from New York Medical College and his BSc in Chemistry from City College.

Prior to joining Wyeth, John worked as a Forensic Scientist analyzing various samples from crime scenes by RFLP and PCR.

As a Ph.D. student in the laboratory of Dr. Tatjana Dragic, Emmanuel's research focused on understanding the structure-function relationship of the gp120-CCR5 interaction. In particular, he shed light on the role played by certain post-translational modifications of the N-terminal domain of CCR5 in the interaction with the V3 loop of the HIV gp120. Dr. Cormier then continued his research on the hepatitis C virus (HCV) identifying L-SIGN as an attachment molecule and CD81 as a co-factor of viral entry. Prior to joining IAVI, Emmanuel was a Senior Scientist at Progenics Pharmaceuticals in charge of leading the assay development group, focusing mostly in anti-viral drug discovery and development.

Dr. Cox has been part of the US Military HIV Research Program/Walter Reed Program in Maryland, USA for 13 years where she directed the scientific and administrative operations of the cellular immunology laboratory. Her interests have included all aspects of the cellular immune response in HIV infected patients and volunteers receiving candidate HIV-1 vaccines (Canarypox, DNA and MVA). She helped establish the program's immune monitoring laboratories in Thailand and East Africa (Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya) in support of phase I-III HIV vaccine trials. A strong research effort has been the determination of cross-clade CTL responses and epitope mapping in HIV-infected individuals across the globe. She was also involved in supporting the pre-clinical evaluation of candidate HIV vaccines in murine and non-human primate models.

Her recent focus has been on establishing ELISPOT and ICS assays at all IAVI sites and internal and external quality assurance panels for these assays. This work has been part of the extensive and newly established networks of laboratories involved in the PAVE 100 and CAVD activities of which IAVI is an active participant. She currently serves as the laboratory coordinator for PAVE 100 trial and the Proficiency Testing Core leader for the CAVD.

"I'm an avid bike rider and white water kayaker when I get time and in general love to be outdoors. I'm a proud of my English gardening heritage and try and grow flowers and vegetables in my garden to share with friends and family."

Dr. De Bont came to IAVI from the Institut Pasteur de Lille in France where, under the leadership of Dr G. Riveau and Prof. A. Capron, he participated as Project Manager to the development of a human schistosomiasis vaccine. The candidate was tested in France, and in areas of Senegal and Niger where bilharzia is endemic. Prior to that Jan spent 14 years working for the University of Gent, Belgium, where he developed and lead teaching and research projects for Universities in Africa and Asia. During that period, he spent 5 years at the University of Peradenyia in Sri Lanka, and 6 years at the University of Zambia, Lusaka. Dr De Bont is author or co-author of 35 publications in international journals.

Hansi Dean participates in HIV vaccine technology evaluation. Prior to joining IAVI, Dr. Dean spent sixteen years in pre-clinical and clinical development of viral vaccines for human and veterinary use, as Director, Project Management for PowderJect Vaccines and Head of Viral Vaccine Development for Schering-Plough Animal Health. She has managed vaccine development collaborations with partners in fourteen countries.

Prior to her industry career, Dr. Dean conducted scientific research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in herpesvirus molecular virology and disease pathogenesis as part of a disease eradication program. Dr. Dean received a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from Northwestern University Medical School, where she studied herpes molecular virology, and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan. Dr. Dean has an Adjunct Professor appointment at the University of Wisconsin Master in Biotechnology program, where she participates in teaching courses in Drug Discovery and Global Biotechnology.

Michelle brings an outstanding record of accomplishment and multi-disciplinary background to IAVI. She received an Honors Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Biotechnology from University of Waterloo (Canada) in 1997, and served in the Guyana Red Cross Society between 1997-2000 as a Health Education Coordinator and Director of the Red Cross Children’s Home. In 2002, Michelle completed her Masters of Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Western Ontario , and since then served as Manager, Business Development, Marketing and Regulatory Affairs at Innovative Drug Delivery Systems (IDDS), a development stage pharmaceutical company. At IDDS, she participated actively in business development and strategic planning activities, authored grant proposals and regulatory submission documents, and undertook many diverse roles common to a small biotech.

Linn Dorin - Linn comes to IAVI with 28 years of finance, investment and accounting experience. As a Vice President for Morgan Stanley, Linn was responsible for the financial oversight of all Equity products, Individual Investor Services, and the Research and Risk Arbitrage Divisions. She founded her own Financial, Systems & Budgeting Company whose clients ranged from mid-size corporations to non-profit organizations and associations and specialized in strategic financial procedures and systems development, investments, compliance and audit preparation as well as Board and management reporting and cost control procedures. Linn is a Certified Public Accountant with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Summa Cum Laude, from City University of New York, Queens College.

Prior to joining IAVI, David worked in non-profit development for the Alliance for Lupus Research (ALR), the largest private source of funds for lupus research in the world. As development specialist, David coordinated their individual giving mail program and also gained experience in major gifts and fundraising events. While pursuing his undergraduate degree, he worked with the State of the Art Gallery in Ithaca, NY, a non-profit cooperative art gallery whose mission is to promote local artists and enhance the vitality of the Ithaca community. He earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Cornell University where he concentrated in Painting and Latino Studies.

As Director, Medical Affairs, Dr. Fast directs the human trials of IAVI-sponsored vaccine candidates. Dr. Fast joined IAVI from Aviron, a biopharmaceutical firm, where as Director, Clinical Research, she oversaw studies of vaccines for influenza and cytomegalovirus. She received her MD at Michigan State University, is board certified in pediatrics and also holds a PhD in immunology from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). At the Division of AIDS at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Fast led HIV vaccine clinical research as Associate Director for Vaccines and Prevention. In addition, she has worked at The Upjohn Company, Wellcome Research Laboratories and UCLA. Dr. Fast has served on several national and international vaccine advisory committees, including the UNAIDS Vaccine Steering Committee, the NIAID AIDS Vaccine Working Group, the Scientific Advisory Committee for the American Foundation for AIDS Research and the U.S. National Vaccine Advisory Committee. She currently serves on the UNAIDS/WHO Vaccine Advisory Committee.

Steven received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Minnesota in 1991, where he worked with Dr. Dale Gregerson defining antibody and T cell antigenic epitopes in an autoimmune disease. He did postdoctoral training (1991-1995) in the Department of Immunology at the University of Washington with his mentor the late Don Pious, M.D. studying HLA immunogenetics. There, he discovered the novel antigen processing function of HLA-DM. This work was supported by a Cancer Research Institute (CRI) Fellowship.

Following his post doc, he has worked for over 11 years in biotechnology in research and development of vaccines and adjuvants for infectious diseases. Most recently he was an Investigator, and Head of the Parenteral Adjuvant Group at the GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals research facility in Seattle. Prior to GSK, he was a Group Leader and Senior Scientist at Corixa Corporation in Seattle. During his tenure at both Corixa and GSK he served as Project Leader for several vaccine and adjuvant programs.

Eneide's most recent position was with Shearman & Sterling LLP, as their Expatriate Project Manager. There she managed the global mobility programs, including domestic and international relocation, expatriate compensation, tax and immigration. Prior to that, Eneide was the Assistant Vice President at Marsh Inc. managing the expatriate administration program for North America, Latin America, and Asia Pacific global operations. She was also a consultant to global business leaders on policy applications, and the design of cost-effective assignment packages. Eneide has more than ten years’ experience in international compensation, assignment programs, and immigration services. She also has extensive experience in international business, specifically in customer relations and office management. Eneide has worked with such organizations as Dow Jones & Company, ORC Worldwide, Telesp Brazil and Ford Brazil. She is a certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR), and is currently pursuing a master’s degree, majoring in Industrial and Labor Relations at the Zicklin School of Business, a branch of Bernard Baruch College.

Arielle was raised in New Jersey and studied violin at Westminster Conservatory of Rider University and the School for Strings in Manhattan. Prior to joining IAVI, Arielle attended Bard College where she received her B.A, majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies, specifically Global and International Studies in Medicine and minoring in Fine Arts. She has had a wide range of work and volunteer experience, including biogenetic research assistant, gymnastics teacher, bike messenger, and violin teacher. Arielle is very pleased to be working at IAVI.

Ms. Glass brings a wealth of R&D administrative experience to IAVI, particularly in the areas of public health and vaccine development, having coordinated operations and R&D administration for Dr. Barry Bloom at Albert Einstein College of Medicine for over ten years.

Mike Goldrich joins IAVI from a distinguished 33 year career of managing scientific programs and research institutions. Most recently, he was the senior Vice President for Research Operations at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School, in Boston. Prior to that he spent 5 years as the COO of the Institute for Human Virology at the University of Maryland. Before that he had a distinguished 25 year career at the National Institutes of Health which included COO of the Warren Magnuson Clinical Center, Director of Management and Operations of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Administrative Director for Cancer Treatment at the National Cancer Institute. Mike received his BA from the University of Maryland (Magna Cum Laude) and his MBA from Loyola College (Summa Cum Laude). He is a member of numerous honorary academic societies (Phi Beta Kappa and Beta Gamma Sigma) and has received many performance related awards during his career including the Presidential Meritorius Award while at the National Institutes of Health.

Kalpana Gupta leads IAVI's R&D efforts on identification of new vaccine technologies and frequently participates in IAVI’s policy initiatives focused on accelerating R&D and access. She was responsible for setting up the auditing process for the selection of international sites where IAVI is considering large-scale clinical trials of the most promising AIDS vaccines. Prior to joining IAVI, she worked for the WHO-UNAIDS HIV Vaccine Initiative in Geneva on issues of access and availability of future AIDS vaccines. After leaving India in 1990, she did undergraduate training at Trinity College in Washington, DC, where she graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. She received a Ph.D. from the Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where her thesis work focused on identification and characterization of a host cell factor involved in HIV replication. Dr. Gupta also has a bachelor of fine arts in Indian classical dance.

Stacey Hannah joined IAVI's Vaccine Preparedness department as a Program Associate in January 2003 after having been with IAVI as a consultant since September 2002. She came from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where she received a MHS degree in Vaccine Science and Policy, International Health. She has worked on preparation for AIDS vaccine trials in Baltimore and Washington DC, as well as in Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa.

Tom Harmon joined the Public Policy Department in January of 2005. He obtained his Bachelor's in Writing from a sports-obsessed public university in Florida. He's lived in New York City since 2001.

Tom joins us from Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine business of the Sanofi Aventis group, where he has served for the past seven years as Global Vice President, Process Development. In this role, he was responsible for the global activities focused on the development of new vaccines from preclinical to licensure, overseeing a worldwide staff of more than 240 people.

Tom is trained as a microbiologist, and received his PhD at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom in 1987. Following a post-doc at MIT as a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, he joined CellTech in 1989 as a Science Leader, working on the development of monoclonals and recombinant mammalian proteins. In 1992, he was hired by Biochem Vaccins, first as Associate Director then shortly thereafter promoted to Director, Viral Vaccine Development. At Biochem Vaccins, his role focused on the development of new preventative vaccines.

In 1997, Tom was recruited to Sanofi Pasteur, as Vice President, Product Development, Canada, and quickly rose through Sanofi Pasteur's ranks in successive senior management roles: first, as head of overall product development in Canada, then North America, and finally in 2001 to his current role as Global Vice President, Process Development.

Prior to joining IAVI, Derek served as the Chief Operations Officer and General Manager of Cambridge Healthtech Associates, a private life science consulting company based in Waltham, MA.

Derek has been working in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries for greater than 17 years. Trained with a BS in Chemistry and an MBA (with a concentration in Pharmaceuticals), Derek has served in positions of increasing responsibility as Project Manager at Merck Research Labs (1995-1997), Director, Resource and Research Planning, Merck Research Labs (1997-2000), and Sr. Director Program Management and Strategic Planning at Vertex Pharmaceuticals (2000-2005).

Ulysee Huling III joined the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) in February 2008 as a communications manager. Ulysee brings 10 years of experience in public relations with focus areas including advocacy and consumer and trade media relations. Currently, Ulysee manages the day-to-day programming for Astellas Pharma US, Inc.

Prior to joining IAVI, Ulysee was involved with consumer awareness and education campaigns about the impact of psoriasis on young adults, peripheral neuropathy, unintended weight loss (HIV wasting) and routine preventive vaccination against tetanus and diphtheria. Ulysee has worked closely with a number of non-profit organizations, including the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, Visiting Nurse Associations of America and The Neuropathy Association to develop and coordinate broadcast and print public service announcements, and media events/tours with celebrity and medical spokespersons.

Ulysee has also worked with The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners to conduct a national parental survey on primary nocturnal enuresis (bedwetting), which resulted in top-tier coverage in Parents and Parenting magazines. During his career, Ulysee was involved with FDA approvals and launches for Novartis Pharmaceuticals' Starlix® for type 2 diabetes and Astra Zeneca's Nexium® for gastro esophageal reflux disease. He has also participated in the development and implementation of issues management strategies for Janssen Pharmaceutica's Propulsid®.

Ulysee graduated magna cum laude from New York University and holds a bachelor's degree in communications.

Prior to joining IAVI, Carlos spent 9 years working at Columbia University. As a Program Coordinator at the Business School's Executive Education department, he worked closely with professors and participants to coordinate open enrollment programs from three broad categories: leadership and strategy, marketing, and finance.

Prior to joining IAVI, Jared was the Manager of Financial Planning and Analysis at Environmental Defense. He was also one of the initial staff members to launch the European division of Priceline.com based in London. Jared is near completion of the Chartered Accountant qualification and holds a BS in Finance and International Business from Miami University in Oxford, OH.

Prior to joining IAVI, Dr Kaminsky was the founding director of the clinical vector production facility at the Belfer Gene Therapy Core Facility at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. At Cornell he was a key team member directing the research and clinical development of a gene therapy for Batten disease. Dr. Kaminsky has also provided consulting services for research lab facility and equipment design. As Director of Chemistry at United Biomedical, the laboratories of Dr Kaminsky manufactured the key functional components for two licensed products and numerous candidate vaccines and diagnostics for clinical studies. Dr. Kaminsky has a BS in Engineering Physics at Cornell and a M. Phil. and Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale.

Joan Kaufman is IAVI's China Team Leader for Vaccine Preparedness. She is a Senior Scientist at the Schneider Institute for Health Policy at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management and a Lecturer in Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is the founding Director of the AIDS Public Policy Training Project at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, a program which trains officials in China and Vietnam about the governance requirements for an effective AIDS response. She was a 2005-2006 Soros Reproductive Health and Rights Fellow. Joan was the Ford Foundation's Reproductive Health Program Officer for China from 1996-2001 where her portfolio funded government, researchers and NGOs in efforts to reform China's population policy and family planning program, to mobilize a response to the AIDS epidemic, and to pr