Dr Kimberly Armstrong | Chief of the Therapeutics Branch in the Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases Division
BARDA

Kimberly Armstrong, Ph.D., MT (ASCP) is the Chief of the Therapeutics Branch in the Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases Division at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the Department for Health and Human Services. The therapeutic team manages the influenza and emerging diseases therapeutics portfolio including candidates for influenza and SARS-CoV-2. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kim’s portfolio included the therapeutic drugs purchased by the US government to combat the pandemic including both monoclonal antibodies and small molecule drugs. The drugs purchased by the COVID-19 therapeutic team was used to treat hundreds of thousands of patients and prevented thousands of hospitalizations. In addition to collaborating with therapeutic developers, Kim has been trying to find ways to improve the efficiency of influenza clinical trials and expand beyond antivirals for those suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and influenza. Before joining BARDA, Kim managed a regulatory science research portfolio for the Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Intramural and extramural research projects ranged from the shelf-life extension program for products in the Strategic National Stockpile to creating tools for gathering clinical trial data in the midst of a public health emergency. Kim joined the federal government as a Presidential Management Fellow at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) in 2011. Kim’s medical countermeasure portfolio at DTRA focused on early research stage products where Kim gained experience in both animal model development and early diagnostic and drug development.  Kim received her Ph.D. from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 2009 in Biological Sciences in Public Health where her work focused on drug resistance in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the laboratory of Max Essex. Kim received her certification as a medical technologist from the American Society for Clinical Pathology in 2001.