Education
MBA, University of South Carolina, 1988
Overview
As Director, Policy Advocacy & Communications at the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), I focus on immunization policy issues, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. My interests are immunization across the life-course, including for older adults. I head up the Secretariat for the International Council on Adult Immunization (ICAI), a diverse group of experts from a variety of fields and countries whose mission is to provide a compelling evidence case that sheds light on the broader value for immunization of older adults and advocate for refinement and implementation of a global roadmap. My research interests include understanding of the drivers of and barriers to country policies, characterizing country archetypes, stakeholder analysis, and factors impacting national vaccine decision-making and equitable uptake. I have worked in more than 70 countries to help accelerate equitable access to new and underutilized vaccines. I oversee work on the Value of Immunization Compendium of Evidence (VoICE) an online tool that helps synthesize evidence from a variety of lenses (equity, health systems, poverty, education, and more) to show the intersection of immunization and broader issues to support advocacy around the strategic development goals, the annual Pneumonia and Diarrhea Progress Report (performance of the top 15 high burden countries), and support for global and national vaccine advocacy. India has been a key country of focus, with a variety of projects over nearly 15 years, including support for introduction of Hib, pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines. My teaching focuses on vaccine policy and advocacy and I have trained hundreds of country-level professionals to address policy and access issues through building their advocacy skills as well as conduct courses at the university.
Prior to coming to Hopkins, I spent more than 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry working in a variety of commercial, operational, forecasting, market research and analysis, and R&D strategy roles in both human and animal health. I managed multiple strategies and initiatives for the launch of the first pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) in the US, and worked with countries in the Americas, Europe and the Middle East to introduce PCV, Hib vaccine and MenC vaccines.