The National Institutes of Health (NIH) appointed Kathleen Neuzil, M.D., M.P.H., FIDSA, as the next director of the Fogarty International Center (FIC) and NIH associate director for international research. Dr. Neuzil, a leading expert in vaccinology and global health, is the first woman to permanently lead the FIC since its establishment in 1968. She began her journey within NIH on May 6th.
Dr. Neuzil brings decades of experience in vaccine research, infectious disease epidemiology, and policy advisory roles. Dr. Neuzil’s distinguished career includes over 330 scientific publications and leading research programs on influenza, COVID-19, and other diseases, including clinical trials through CIVICs. NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli, M.D., praised Neuzil’s “impressive research portfolio” spanning clinical studies on numerous infectious diseases as well as her extensive leadership experience. In her new role, Dr. Neuzil will oversee the FIC’s $95 million budget and its mission to support global health research collaborations between U.S. and international investigators. Her priorities will include building partnerships, providing research training opportunities, and addressing major health challenges worldwide. The CIVICs Program congratulates Dr. Neuzil and wishes her luck in her new role.
As part of this new appointment, Dr. Neuzil left the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore (UMB) and stepped down as the Principal Investigator (PI) of the UMB CIVICs Clinical Core. Professor of Medicine at UMB, Justin Ortiz, M.D., M.S. will take over as PI of the UMB CIVICs Clinical Core.
Dr. Ortiz has two decades of experience in infectious diseases and vaccine science, policy, and public health practice. Through his career, he developed expertise in identifying and conducting research to address unmet public health needs, with particular emphasis on low-resource settings. Much of Dr. Ortiz’s career focused on influenza research. At the CDC, he led the design and implementation of hospital-based influenza surveillance. From 2008-2013, he worked with PATH and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accelerate the development of new influenza vaccines for low-resource countries, including Bangladesh and Senegal. He then led influenza vaccine research, policy development, and implementation at the World Health Organization (WHO), defining WHO preferred universal influenza vaccine characteristics and preferred clinical evaluation pathways. After coming to the UMB Center for Vaccine Development & Global Health in 2017, Dr. Ortiz conducted influenza controlled human challenge studies and various clinical trials on SARS-CoV-2 and influenza vaccines. The CIVICs Program formally welcomes Dr. Ortiz in his new role as PI and looks forward to working more with him.
To read more about Dr. Neuzil’s appointment, please read the NIH Press Release.