Biographical Sketches of NIAID Council Members

Monica Gandhi, M.D., M.P.H.

Monica Gandhi, M.D., M.P.H., is Professor of Medicine and Associate Chief in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Gandhi is also the Director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and the medical director of the HIV Clinic ("Ward 86") at San Francisco General Hospital. Her research focuses on HIV and women, and adherence measurement in HIV treatment and prevention. She is Clinical Director of the UCSF Hair Analytical Laboratory, which has been analyzing antiretroviral concentrations in hair samples for over a decade and provides this service for a number of research groups around the globe. Dr. Gandhi holds an annual “Mentoring the Mentors” workshop to train HIV researchers nationwide and globally on tools and techniques to improve their research mentoring skills. (October 31, 2023)

Paul Goepfert, M.D.

Paul Goepfert, M.D., is a physician-scientist in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Goepfert’s clinical research focuses on vaccine development. He has been conducting clinical vaccine trials for over 25 years, with the majority of studies testing preventative HIV vaccines as part of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. He also has an NIH-funded translational research laboratory, which focuses on viral-specific T cell responses and analyzing how HIV-specific CD8 T cells are able to control infection. Dr. Goepfert recently began studying Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2-specific CD8 T cell responses from cohorts of patients infected in the local area with the goal of determining clinical correlates of disease protection. (October 31, 2023)

Keith R. Jerome, M.D., Ph.D.

Keith R. Jerome, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician and medical researcher at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Dr. Jerome’s research focuses on the biology of chronic viral infections. He is currently pioneering the use of gene editing and gene therapy as potentially curative therapies for HIV, hepatitis B, human papillomavirus, and herpesvirus infections. Dr. Jerome has served as co-principal investigator and NIH contact investigator for defeatHIV, one of the original three Martin Delaney Collaboratories working toward a cure for HIV. He also leads the diagnostic virology program at the University of Washington, which has designed and implemented molecular testing assays for a wide variety of human viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, hepatitis B and C, enterovirus, BK virus, and cytomegalovirus. (October 31, 2024)

Audrey Pettifor, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Audrey Pettifor, Ph.D., M.P.H., is Professor in the Department of Epidemiology in the Gillings School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Faculty Fellow with the Carolina Population Center. Dr. Pettifor’s research focuses on understanding how social determinants impact HIV and sexual and reproductive health outcomes, particularly among adolescents and young women in sub-Saharan Africa, and developing and testing structural interventions to improve HIV prevention and care outcomes. She has led multiple NIH-funded studies of different populations in South Africa, including a large cash transfer trial conditioned on school attendance to reduce HIV risk among adolescent girls, a study examining how HIV self-testing impacts HIV testing uptake among young women and their peers and partners, and a trial of community mobilization to increase HIV testing and linkage to care among men and women in the rural part of the country. Dr. Pettifor is Co-Chair of the HIV Prevention Trials Network Adolescent Scientific Committee. (October 31, 2023)

Ex officio member:

• Victoria Davey, Ph.D., M.P.H., Chief, Office of Public Health and Environmental Hazards, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Emily Brown

Emily Brown, a national patient advocate, is founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Free From Market, a digital health and e-commerce company working to provide affordable, inclusive access to foods and resources people need to improve their health. Emily also founded and is former CEO of the Food Equality Initiative. She is an active board and council member serving on several hospital committees and food policy coalitions and is a member of the University of Kansas School of Medicine Admissions Committee. Her research interests include food systems, health disparities, and patient-centered approaches to care. (October 31, 2025)

James E. Gern, M.D.

James E. Gern, M.D., is Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pediatrics. As a pediatric allergist and immunologist, Dr. Gern’s translational research program focuses on identifying how viral respiratory infections and other environmental and host factors influence the development of childhood asthma and acute exacerbations of this disease. He is an expert on the clinical and molecular virology of rhinoviruses and mechanisms of interactions between respiratory viruses, airway bacteria, and allergy. Dr. Gern leads a U.S. birth cohort consortium working to identify childhood asthma phenotypes and causes of asthma disparities in children. (October 31, 2025)

Laurence Morel, Ph.D.

Laurence Morel, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Health Center San Antonio. Her research is centered on the mechanisms of lupus pathogenesis using mouse models as well as patients’ samples. Dr. Morel’s current research focuses on the genetic and metabolic determinants of CD4+ T cells and B cells that lead to the production of lupus autoantibodies, as well as the role of the microbiome in lupus pathogenesis. She is also conducting preclinical studies to explore the therapeutic potentials of treatments combining metabolic inhibitors to standard-of-care or emerging biologics. Her long-term goal is to identify and validate therapeutic targets using a combination of genetic, metabolic, and microbial/metabolomics approaches. (October 31, 2025)

Linda Bockenstedt, M.D.

Linda Bockenstedt, M.D., is Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs and the Harold W. Jockers Professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine. As a physician-scientist, she leads a research laboratory investigating the immunopathogenesis of Lyme disease and related Ixodes tick-borne infections in mouse models and humans. A main goal is to understand host immune responses that result in diverse clinical outcomes, from silent infection to multisystem disease, using cutting-edge technologies. Dr. Bockenstedt co-chaired the 2020 Clinical Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Lyme Disease produced jointly by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Academy of Neurology, and the American College of Rheumatology. (October 31, 2024)

Mary K. Estes, Ph.D.

Mary K. Estes, Ph.D., holds the Cullen Foundation Endowed Chair of Molecular and Human Virology and is Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology and the Department of Medicine—Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Infectious Diseases at Baylor College of Medicine. She is the emeritus founding Director of an NIH-funded Digestive Diseases Center, which supports collaborative research across multiple institutions in the Texas Medical Center. Her research focuses on viral infections of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Dr. Estes and her lab use multidisciplinary approaches to probe the structure and molecular biology of GI viruses to understand the basic mechanisms that control virus replication, morphogenesis, virus-host interactions, and pathogenesis. She has developed virus-like particle vaccines for gastroenteritis viruses (rotaviruses and noroviruses) and discovered new mechanisms of pathogenesis now being targeted for drug discovery. (October 31, 2025)

Harry Greenberg, M.D.

Harry Greenberg, M.D., is Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Greenberg is also the Co-Director of Spectrum, the Stanford Clinical and Translational Science Center. His research career has focused on viruses that infect the gastrointestinal tract, lungs, and liver with a special focus on rotaviruses, viral pathogenesis, viral immunity, and vaccines. He was an inventor of the first licensed rotavirus vaccine in the United States and part of the teams that developed the Indian ROTAVAC vaccine now licensed and widely used in India. His research has also involved studies of noroviruses, hepatitis B and C viruses, and influenza. Dr. Greenberg served as Chair of FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biologics Advisory Committee. (October 31, 2023)

Guy Hughes Palmer, D.V.M., Ph.D.

Guy Hughes Palmer, D.V.M., Ph.D., is Regents Professor of Pathology and Infectious Diseases and the Jan and Jack Creighton Endowed Chair at Washington State University (WSU). The founding Director of WSU’s Paul G. Allen School for Global Health, Dr. Palmer serves as the Senior Director of Global Health for the WSU System. Combining laboratory research and epidemiological studies, he has focused on microbial antigenic variation in immune evasion and the impact of zoonotic infectious diseases on human health. Dr. Palmer is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and recently chaired National Academies’ studies on the threat of antimicrobial resistance to the U.S. health system and implementation of a national wastewater surveillance system for emerging pathogens and antibiotic resistant microbes. (October 31, 2025)

Ken Stuart, Ph.D.,

Ken Stuart, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine and Seattle Children’s Research Institute (SCRI). Dr. Stuart chaired the UW Department of Pathobiology until its incorporation into the Department of Global Health and founded a global infectious disease research institute that merged with SCRI. His laboratory studies molecular and cellular processes of pathogens and the effects of infection and vaccination on the hosts, primarily focused on malaria and trypanosomes. He has led parasite genomics and drug discovery consortia and leads a multi-institution research program on human immune responses to HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis. Dr. Stuart has served on NIH study sections, and USAID and WHO advisory groups. (October 31, 2023)

Stephanie N. Taylor, M.D.

Stephanie N. Taylor, M.D., is Professor of Medicine and Microbiology in the Section of Infectious Diseases at Louisiana State University (LSU) Health Sciences Center. Dr. Taylor’s clinical practice and research are focused on sexually transmitted infections, STI-related diagnostic trials, and STI clinical drug trials, particularly recent trials investigating new antimicrobials for treating resistant gonococcal infections. She is Medical Director of the LSU Infectious Diseases STI research program and laboratory, LSU-CrescentCare Sexual Health Center, and Louisiana Office of Public Health STD/HIV Program. Dr. Taylor has served on NIH study sections and as protocol chair and site principal investigator for multiple Sexually Transmitted Infections Clinical Trials Group protocols. (October 31, 2024)

Ex officio members:

• Daniel Jernigan, M.D., M.P.H., Acting Director, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
• Col. Stuart D. Tyner, Ph.D., Chief of Staff, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research