IAVI Welcomes Distinguished New Members to its Board of Directors

NEW YORK – APRIL 05, 2018 – The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) is pleased to announce that Linda-Gail Bekker, MBChB, DTMH, DCH, FCP(SA), PhD; The Hon. Mark Dybul, M.D.; and Christina Hull Paxson, Ph.D., have been appointed to IAVI’s Board of Directors.

“IAVI welcomes these exceptionally accomplished and visionary leaders to our Board and is honored to have them as partners in our efforts to accelerate the development of an effective HIV vaccine and other urgently needed prevention measures,” said Mark Feinberg, MD, PhD, CEO of IAVI. “Together they bring a deep understanding of the communities most affected by HIV/AIDS and a remarkable track record for innovation and collaboration in global health programs and policies.”

Linda-Gail Bekker, MBChB, DTMH, DCH, FCP(SA), Ph.D.

Dr. Bekker is a renowned HIV research scientist-advocate who will soon be completing a very productive tenure as President of the International AIDS Society. In her work as Principal Investigator and Chief Operating Officer of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre in South Africa, she works to combat both the direct impact of the HIV pandemic, as well as the social stigma associated with it, in a country that bears the world’s greatest burden of HIV/AIDS. Throughout her career, she has championed the treatment and prevention needs of women, adolescents, men who have sex with men, and other populations facing a significantly higher risk of HIV infection than the general population.

The Hon. Mark Dybul, M.D.

Dr. Dybul is Faculty Co-Director of the Center for Global Health and Quality and Professor in the Department of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center. He has worked on HIV and public health for more than 25 years, most recently as the Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Global Fund estimates 22 million lives saved since 2002 through its efforts to provide funding for HIV, TB, and malaria programs in heavily impacted, resource-limited countries. Dr. Dybul was one of the founding architects of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and from 2006-2009 he served as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. He also led the first randomized, controlled trial with combination antiretroviral therapy in Africa.

Christina Hull Paxson, Ph.D.

Dr. Paxson is Brown’s nineteenth president and a highly respected economist. At Brown, she has opened a new School of Public Health and the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and has reinvigorated its Watson Institute for Public and International Affairs. Prior to her appointment at Brown, Dr. Paxson was dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs and the Hughes Rogers Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Her socioeconomic research efforts have included influential studies of the AIDS epidemic’s significant and durable impact on health, educational, and economic outcomes in affected communities, particularly for women and for the millions of children orphaned by the loss of their parents to AIDS.

“IAVI and its partners are committed to doing all we can to facilitate and expedite important scientific and clinical research to bring us closer to an effective and accessible vaccine,” Dr. Feinberg said. “The IAVI Board of Directors plays an essential role in providing us with the insights, advice, and guidance required to ensure that our efforts are as relevant, innovative, and effective as possible. We are thrilled to have Drs. Bekker, Dybul, and Paxson as partners in this important work.”