2027 SPEAKERS

Dr. Erin Abramsohn brings 20 years of public service experience to her role as Executive Director of the Infectious Disease Prevention Network (IDPN), including 15 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Throughout her career, she has led cross‑sector collaborations between...

BRIAN DEAN ABRAMSON is a leading expert on vaccine law, and was the founding chair of the National Vaccine Law Conference. He teaches the subject as adjunct professor of vaccine law at the Florida International University College of Law, and at the University of Houston Law Center. He is the...

Alicia Adams is the Executive Director of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Inc. (“FCAAP”). Incorporated in the State of Florida as a 501(c)(6), FCAAP is member-based organization that promotes the health and welfare of Florida’s children and supports pediatricians and...

Dr Haritha Adhikarla is Senior Translational Immunology Lead at CEPI. She has proven success in the areas of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with 15 years of research experience in academics and industry. Her research interests include understanding pathogenesis mechanisms and development of...

Babita Agrawal is a distinguished Professor at the University of Alberta, specializing in vaccine research and development. With over 25 years of experience in the field, she is a renowned expert in immunology and infectious diseases. Dr. Agrawal's research focuses on the design and development ...

Dr. Akwar is the Science Advisor for Veterinary Sciences and AMR at the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions (ICARS). He leads the development and implementation of technical initiatives designed to generate evidence on AMR mitigation and enhance preventive health strategies...

Dr. Alameh received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Montreal, and his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Polytechnique Montreal. His thesis work focused on understanding the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters affecting chitosan-siRNA nanoparticle macromolecular properties and...

Galit Alter is an American immunologist and virologist renowned for her pioneering work in systems serology, a field that combines systems biology approaches with antibody Fc-engineering to uncover immune correlates of protection against infectious diseases such as HIV, influenza, and COVID-19.As...

Raiees Andrabi is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Raiees Andrabi earned his PhD degree from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Biochemistry and performed his...

Dr. Joann Diray Arce is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Affiliate Faculty at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She serves as Lead of the Data Management and Analysis Core (DMAC) within the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, where she...

Max Bayer is a senior reporter for Endpoints News, where he covers drugmakers' relationship with Washington and the White House. From drug pricing to FDA upheaval, Max regularly breaks news on significant policy and personnel changes impacting the biopharma industry. He previously worked at...

Dr. Berglund has over 25 years of experience in developing and evaluating novel vaccine technologies. As the original inventor of RNA vaccination he studied immune response, memory and protection against influenza and other viral infections. Previously, he was Executive Director of Research at...

Dr. Bhadelia is the founding director of Boston University’s Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases. She is a board-certified infectious diseases physician and an Associate Professor at the BU School of Medicine. She served as the Senior Policy Advisor for Global COVID-19 Response for the White...

Cedric graduated as a Bioscience Engineer at Ghent University, majoring in medical genetics. After his studies, he continued his research on epigenomics by leading a multi-university collaboration on the epigenetic effects of Menohop. A platform for automated dose-response curve analysis was set-up ...

Dr. Amelia Burke-Garcia is a leading health communications scholar and practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating programs that improve public health—particularly through strategies that strengthen vaccine confidence. She directs NORC’s Center for...

Dr. Caldwell is the Associate Vice President, Vaccine Research & Education at Meharry Medical College in Nashville TN.  He is Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Global Public Health and serves as Program Director for the newly revived Master of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI) degree...

Ale has extensive experience as a Medical Affairs leader within Pfizer, originally joining via Wyeth in 2007 as the Southern Cone Vaccines Medical & Scientific Affairs Head. From there, Ale has served increasingly broader roles, including as the Medical & Scientific Affairs Head for Latin...

Danilo Casimiro serves as the Chief Science Officer and Global Head of External Scientific Affairs for Vaccines R&D at Sanofi. In this pivotal role, Dr. Casimiro drives the scientific direction of Sanofi’s vaccine pipeline, ensuring technical excellence in candidate selection and technology...

Javier Castillo‑Olivares is a Senior Scientist in CEPI’s Laboratory Research and Innovations Department, contributing to global vaccine research and development through laboratory innovation, pre‑clinical evaluation, and cross‑functional scientific collaboration.His work focuses on understanding...

Dr. Francesca Ceddia is a distinguished medical professional and the current Chief Medical Affairs Officer at Moderna. In her role, she is responsible for leading, developing, and executing the company's global medical and evidence generation strategy, shaping the future of Moderna's...

Dr. Enrique Chacon-Cruz. Mexican-born medical doctor with a degree from Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, Mexico, and further specializations in Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases from the National Institute of Pediatrics in Mexico City, and the Eastern Virginia Medical School in...

Dr. Ling CHEN received his medical degree from Shanghai Medical College (now affiliated with Fudan University) in 1984. He then entered the elite CUSBEA program and earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Indiana University School of Medicine in the United States in 1992. After...

Dr. Robert T Chen has been active in research of vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases for over 40 years, mostly at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  He played key roles in modernizing the vaccine safety infrastructure in the U.S. and elsewhere, including the creation of ...

Dr. Wilbur Chen is the Frank M. Calia, M.D. Endowed Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he is the Chief of the Division of Geographic Medicine and Director of the UMB Travel Medicine Practice. The Travel Medicine Practice is a not-for-profit travel clinic...

Heath Damron is Director of the Vaccine Development Center (VDC) at West Virginia University and Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Montani Biotechnologies, Inc. He works in pre-clinical vaccine development, and the VDC collaborates with industry to evaluate experimental vaccines, including ...

Dr. Kashmira Date is a physician, epidemiologist and global health leader with over 20 years of experience and leadership in the public and private sector with clinical development/medical/scientific affairs in infectious diseases, vaccines, epidemiology, real-world evidence, pandemic...

Susan Dentzer is President and Chief Executive Officer of America’s Physician Groups, the nonprofit organization representing more than 360 large physician groups focused on patient-centered, coordinated, and integrated health care that is accountable for both costs and quality. Dentzer is a highly ...

Dr. Diamond received his A.B. with high honors (1977) and Ph.D. in 1985 from Harvard University. A 2-year fellowship with Dr. Susumu Tonegawa (Nobel Laureate, 1987) left an indelible mark about focus and how to achieve success in science. Following an LLS fellowship carried out at the DFCI, he...

Antonio DiGiandomenico is Senior Director and Head of Microbial Antibodies and Technologies at AstraZeneca's Vaccines and Immune Therapies unit. He earned his MS in Microbiology from Duquesne University in 2001 and his PhD in Microbiology from the University of Virginia in 2005, followed by...

Using Adjuvant Science to shape the future of human health – The AIDD (Adjuvant Innovation, Discovery, and Development) Laboratory, led by Dr. David Dowling at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, pioneers adjuvant-centric approaches to enhance vaccine efficacy in vulnerable...

Dr Sheetij Dutta is currently engaged in the development of next-generation vaccines, Dr. Dutta holds a master's in Biotechnology, University of Pune, India: 1991-1993; Ph.D. in Biochemistry University of Lucknow, India: 1993-1998; National Research Council Post Doctoral Fellow at Walter Reed...

Kathryn M. Edwards, MD, Professor of Pediatrics Emerita at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, has led many of the pivotal clinical trials of vaccines licensed in the past several decades and has played a major role in their implementation.  She graduated from the University of Iowa College of...

Dr. Rikhav Gala is a pharmaceutical scientist with extensive expertise in vaccine research, drug development, and advanced formulations. He holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Industrial Pharmaceutical Sciences and currently leads innovation programs at Pfizer, where his work focuses on translating...

Lauren is a reporter at POLITICO, with a focus on the FDA and pharmaceutical policy.She writes about how the world-renowned agency green-lights medical products and ensures their safety — and how they're ultimately adopted by American consumers. Her coverage spans from childhood vaccines to...

Huub Gelderblom is a physician-scientist who joined HVTN in 2019 and again in 2022. Huub has an MD, MSc and PhD from the University of Amsterdam, and an MPH from New York University. He has extensive experience working on HIV, hepatitis C, trachoma and SARS-CoV-2 in Europe, Africa, and the US. Huub ...

Pascal Geldsetzer is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. He has won an NIH New Innovator Award to investigate the feasibility of applying causal effect estimation techniques from the social sciences to clinical research questions. As...

Rebecca Gentile is a Director in Biologics Analytical Research and Development (BARD) for Merck & Co., Inc.  She directs a lab of analysts to complete validation for separations assays, bioassays, and compendial testing in support of Merck's biologics pipeline, and to execute the assays to...

Professor Michele Bratcher Goodwin is the Linda D. & Timothy J. O’Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy and Faculty Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. She is a sought after thought leader and public voice on matters of constitutional...

Dr. Girija Goyal is an immunologist working with the organs-on-chips and diagnostics platforms to design better in vitro models of the human immune system to develop new immunotherapeutics and derisk vaccines. Her research has reached the real world as these in vitro models are now used at...

Dr Bassam Hallis OBE is the Deputy Director and the lead for the Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre.Bassam has over 35 years’ experience working with public sector, industry and academia in the development and evaluation of vaccines and therapeutics. He provides scientific and operational...

A BRIEF BIO OF PROFESSOR C. HAPPI   Christian Happi, is a Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics, and Director of Institute of Genomics and Global Health, Redeemer’s University, Ede, Nigeria. He graduated his PhD from the University of Ibadan in 2000, and did his postdoctoral...

I am the founder of Omniose (formerly VaxNewMo) dating back to 2016 when I left my postdoctoral fellowship to lead company formation and build out its laboratory infrastructure. Since then, I have established multiple R&D programs developing polysaccharide-protein conjugate vaccines targeting...

Jon Heinrichs is Vice President and head of Discovery Science at IAVI, based in New York City. His responsibilities include advancing broadly neutralizing antibodies for HIV prevention and leading IAVI’s three laboratories, based in La Jolla, CA, Jersey City, NJ, and New Delhi, India. Prior to...

Caroline is veterinarian and animal health strategy expert with over twenty years’ experience working in the animal health and nutrition sectors in the US, Europe and globally. She spent ten years at Zoetis where she served as Vice President of Commercial Development & Lifecycle Management for...

Dr. Hepburn is currently co-lead of Avinora Health, an independent consulting service covering the landscape of breakthrough health technology in the interface with infectious diseases. He recently served as the Executive Vice President of R&D at Panther Life Science, which focused on...

Dr. Hinkley is the CEO of the National Association of School Nurses, a 501(c)(3) organization based in the Washington DC area. She has over twelve years of association management experience, having held executive positions in both individual membership associations and certification boards. She has ...

Richard Hughes is a health lawyer, strategic advisor, and advocate who helps health care clients navigate complex health law and policy issues.His advice and insight are highly sought after by leading health care and biopharmaceutical companies, investors, and industry trade associations. His input ...

Clarisse Ingabire is a Livestock Specialist at the World Bank, based in Washington, D.C., where she leads efforts to advance One Health, climate-smart livestock, and sustainable animal health systems. She plays a central role in driving policy dialogue, technical assistance, and investment...

Dr. Sheila Marie Keating is the Vice President of Immunology at GigaGen, Inc., where she leads the discovery and development of the first recombinant human polyclonal antibody therapeutic programs. Leveraging advanced microfluidic technology, her work focuses on capturing the full breadth and depth ...

Tom is an established leader in vaccine development with a 33-year background in biotechnology who has led R&D programs for several private and publicly traded companies. Across these roles he developed animal models to study the immunogenicity and efficacy of adenoviral, microbial, and subunit ...

A passionate believer in science and the value vaccines bring to society, Charles has supported all phases of vaccine development and commercial activities for bacterial, viral, recombinant, and conjugated vaccines, as well as mRNA programs in development.  Charles leads a team of talented Reg CMC...

Mahesh Kumar is Senior Vice President, Global Biologics in R&D. He is responsible for the vaccines pipeline globally. In addition, he is also responsible for livestock genetics and precision animal health. He is based in Kalamazoo and oversees R&D activities in the US, EU, China, Brazil and ...

Dr. Ofer Levy is principal investigator, staff physician and the Director of the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The Precision Vaccines Program (PVP) is an...

Tom Mahoney is an experienced investor and philanthropist in the field of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, currently affiliated with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. Tom's work is characterized by a deep commitment to public...

Dr. Gerben Marsman obtained his doctorate degree at Sanquin Research (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and completed a post-doctoral research position at the Max-Planck Institute for Infection Biology (Berlin, Germany). He joined the VFI in 2023 as a Project Manager and is currently Head of Alliance...

As Chief Operating Officer, Patricia is responsible for LimmaTech’s vaccine clinical programs. She joined  in 2014 in the Clinical Department and became part of LimmaTech’s Executive Management team in 2019. Prior to LimmaTech, Patricia held various roles in clinical research in several biotech...

Dr. John Mascola is Chief Scientific Officer of ModeX Therapeutics, a company developing innovative multispecific immunotherapies for cancer and immunological diseases. He is an accomplished physician-scientist, virologist and immunologist with over 25 years’ experience in research and development...

Stephanie Monticelli, Ph.D., MPH, is a Research Scientist and Principal Investigator at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), representing the Henry M. Jackson Foundation. A specialist in viral immunology, Dr. Monticelli’s current research focuses on the...

Dr. Kelly L. Moore is the president and CEO of Immunize.org and a leader in national and global vaccine policy and immunization program implementation. Before her current role, Dr. Moore served for 14 years as the director of the Tennessee Immunization Program and later founded her own consulting...

Dr. Jomana Musmar is a distinguished global policy expert and result-oriented leader with decades of intimate government experience within the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Defense (DoD), and Agriculture (USDA). She excels in cross-functional coordination, strategic...

Dr. Elizabeth Norton, MPH, PhD: Dr. Norton is an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at Tulane School of Medicine Department of Microbiology & Immunology. A major portion of her laboratory investigates LT-based adjuvants and proteins and mechanisms of vaccine efficacy related to age or disease...

Dr. Sallie Permar is the Nancy C. Paduano Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine and Pediatrician-in-Chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children's Hospital of Children’s Hospital of New York. She is ...

Nikolai is Professor of Immunology and Infectious Disease at the Australian Respiratory and Sleep Medicine Institute in Adelaide and is a leading physician-scientist in the area of vaccine and adjuvant development. He is Research Director for Vaxine, an Australian biotechnology company. His...

Amy Pisani, MS, CEO Vaccinate Your FamilyAmy Pisani is a distinguished expert in the field of vaccine advocacy and education, with a remarkable tenure dating back to 1996 when she joined Every Child By Two (now known as Vaccinate Your Family). As the Chief Executive Officer, she has played a...

Dr Gregory A. Poland, M.D., is the chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the World Vaccine Congress. He studies the immunogenetics of vaccine response in adults and children. Dr. Poland and his team within the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic aim to improve the health of individuals...

Lisa Purcell has been an Entrepreneur-In-Residence and NewCo Chief Scientific Officer at Third Rock Ventures since May 2024. Her career has been dedicated to the development of therapies within the immunology and infectious disease areas. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she co-chaired the ACTIV...

Stephen is Country Director for Unimed Americas. He has 25 years of experience in health system strengthening and health market development across Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia and the United States, in partnership with global manufacturers and implementers, local governments and...

Parthiban Rajasekaran (Parthi) is an innovation lead at Sanofi, where he drives strategic external collaborations by sourcing, evaluating, and negotiating partnerships with academic and industry leaders. In this role, he engages with early-stage innovators andentrepreneurs via a sponsored research...

Rino Rappuoli is Scientific Director of the Biotecnopolo di Siena Foundation, Italy.  He is also Honorary Professor of Vaccinology at Imperial College, London, and Senior Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Siena. Prior positions held: Head R&D and Chief Scientist at GSK...

Steve Reed is the co-founder, President, and CEO of HDT Bio, based in Seattle, USA. His academic appointments include Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Cornell University Medical College Research Professor of Pathobiology at the University of Washington. Dr. Reed received a PhD in Microbiology and...

Giovanna Riggall is a global health supply chain leader with 15+ years’ experience improving access to medicines and vaccines in complex environments.She leads strategy, procurement and supply chain transformation across multi-country programmes, working with governments and partners to strengthen...

Ted Ross, PhD, is the Global Director of Vaccine Development at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Ross joined Cleveland Clinic from the University of Georgia where he was the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar of Infectious Diseases and director of the Center for Vaccines and Immunology. Prior to...

Dr. Mehul S. Suthar, a leading expert in emerging viral infections, serves as Director of the Center for Childhood Infections and Vaccines at Emory University (2024) and Director of the Program on Pandemic Preparedness within the Emory Vaccine Center (member since 2012, Program Director since...

Sushant Sahastrabuddhe, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., is the Associate Director General of the Innovation, Initiatives, and Enterprise Development unit at the International Vaccine Institute (IVI).Dr. Sahastrabuddhe has been with IVI for 15 years and has led multiple vaccine development programs, including ...

Daniel A. Salmon, PhD, Director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety and Professor, Department of International Health, has training, research and practice interests in epidemiology and health policy. He has focused on post-licensure vaccine safety and the factors associated with parental decisions...

Afer receiving his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Virginia, USA, Gautam held academic faculty positions at the University of Florida, Mayo Clinic and Hamilton College before moving to pharmaceutical industry. During the 27 years that Gautam spent in pharmaceutical industry, he headed...

Mr. Ted Schenkelberg (MBA/MPH), for over 25 years experience working in the vaccine and global health field. Currently, Ted is a Managing Partner at Next Frontier Advisors (NFA), a strategic consulting firm advising foundations, companies, universities and philanthropies in the vaccines, biomedical ...

Taylor Sexton is a health security and biodefense policy executive with experience spanning federal response operations, congressional policy, and biotechnology strategy. He currently serves as a Principal at Todd Strategy Group and as Executive Director of the Medical Countermeasures...

Dr. Lindsey Shields is an epidemiologist and global health leader with over 15 years of experience designing and implementing infectious disease surveillance, preparedness, and response programs in resource-limited settings worldwide. She currently serves as Deputy Director of Epidemic Preparedness ...

John A. Simon is a Founder and the Managing Partner/CEO of Total Impact Capital (TOTAL), an impact investing firm that structures, markets, and manages financing vehicles for underserved communities. The firm has partners in Washington, New York, Amsterdam, and Geneva and focuses on investments in...

Victoria Standley is an experienced healthcare professional and public health advocate with over 18 years in service and leadership roles. She currently serves as an Immunization Program Specialist at Sanford Health, a large nonprofit health system serving 2.4 million patients across the Upper...

Dr. Erin Strait leads Dalan's expanding research and development initiatives, bringing extensive experience in veterinary biologics development. She joined Dalan from Ceva Animal Health, where she served as Director of Innovation and Development for U.S. Poultry and Swine Biologics. Erin earned ...

Walter Straus is Vice President in Clinical Safety and Risk Management at the Moderna, supporting vaccine research and development. He is a physician and epidemiologist with more than 30 years of combined experience in research in government and industry. Dr. Straus served as an Epidemic...

Rajinder as CEO-DCVMN International is responsible for providing leadership, shaping strategic vision, governance and overall operational excellence of DCVMN.  Rajinder has been appointed as committee delegate on GAVI-PPC effective 1st January 2024, is a member of GAVI’s Vaccine Investment Strategy ...

As Professor in molecular virology Dr Temperton's R&D focus is on the design, development and deployment of viral pseudotype based neutralisation assays for influenza, coronavirus and other emerging viruses, and he has received funding from the MRC, the Bill & Melinda Gates...

Dr. Stephen J. Thomas is an Infectious Diseases physician-scientist from the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY and is a SUNY Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology. Dr. Thomas currently directs the Upstate Global Health...

The van Haren Lab at Boston Children's Hospital is focused on better understanding the molecular basis of age-specific immune responses to vaccines. Understanding how the human immune system changes with age in how it responds to vaccination can ultimately inform the development of novel...

Roland Ventura holds a PhD in molecular biology and vaccines from the Queen’s University Belfast.  After postdoctoral training at the University of Oxford he worked with Dako A/S in Denmark under a European Commission-funded Marie Curie Transfer of Knowledge Fellowship.  Following this, he became...

Will Walters helps managed care organizations, health plans, physician practices, and other health care providers with a variety of legal matters, including coverage, payment, pricing, Medicare, Medicaid, vaccines, and preventive services.As a law student, Will worked for the Health Rights Law...

Jim brings over three decades of experience developing and commercializing vaccines intended to treat or prevent diseases that impact children and adults around the world. During this time, he held significant leadership positions in the vaccine divisions of Pfizer, Novartis and Merck. Prior to...

Weiner directs a translational molecular immunology research team focused on creating novel immunotherapy approaches for disease prevention and treatment using synthetic nucleic acid technology. Accomplishments of the team and collaborators include the first clinical studies of DNA vaccines, with a ...

Richard White is a Prof in Infectious Disease Epidemiology in the TB Modelling Group, TB Centre, Vaccine Center and Math Modelling Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He was awarded a PhD in infectious disease modelling in 2006, led the establishment of the LSHTM’s Centre...

In-Kyu Yoon, M.D. is based in Seoul, South Korea, and serves as Deputy Director General of Integrated Development & Pandemic/Outbreak Readiness at the International Vaccine Institute (IVI). He previously served as Executive Director of Research & Development (acting) at the Coalition for...