Biographical Sketches of NIAID Council Members

Grace M. Aldrovandi, M.D., CM

Grace M. Aldrovandi, M.D., CM

Grace M. Aldrovandi, M.D., CM, is a physician-scientist and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital. She is also a Professor of Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine of the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests include the pathogenesis of HIV in women and children, the effects of breast milk and the microbiome on infant health and laboratory diagnostics. Dr. Aldrovandi currently serves as principal investigator of the Laboratory Centers of Advancing Clinical Therapeutics Globally and International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT) networks. (October 31, 2026)

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

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)

Seema K. Shah, J.D., HEC-C

Seema K. Shah, J.D., HEC-C 

Seema K. Shah, J.D., HEC-C, is Professor in Pediatrics at Northwestern University Medical School and the Founder’s Board Professor of Medical Ethics at Lurie Children’s Hospital. Ms. Shah is also Director of Research Ethics and leads the Pediatric Research Ethics and Policy Program at Lurie Children’s Hospital. Her research focuses on pediatric and global health research ethics, including on ethical issues arising in controlled human infection studies, data monitoring of clinical trials, and pediatric pandemic preparedness. She has served as Chair of an NIH panel on ethical considerations in conducting Zika virus human challenge trials and on expert advisory groups for the World Health Organization. (October 31, 2026)

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

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. Ms. Brown 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.

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.

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)

Virginia Pascual, M.D.

Virginia Pascual, M.D.

Virginia Pascual, M.D., is Ronay Menschel Professor of Pediatrics and the Director of the Drukier Institute for Children’s Health at Weill Cornell Medical College, which is committed to accelerating research to better understand and treat diseases that start in childhood. She is a pediatric rheumatologist, whose research focuses on understanding pediatric inflammatory and autoimmune diseases with the goals of identifying therapeutic targets and useful biomarkers. Dr. Pascual is currently the Program Director of an NIAID-funded Autoimmunity Center of Excellence, an NIAMS-funded Center of Research Translation, and a Lupus Research Alliance-Sponsored Global Team Science Award, all of which focus on pediatric autoimmunity. (October 31, 2026)

R. Stokes Peebles, Jr., M.D.

R. Stokes Peebles, Jr., M.D. 

R. Stokes Peebles, Jr., M.D., is Principal Investigator of The Peebles Lab at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which investigates mechanisms regulating lung inflammation, with specific emphasis on allergen-induced and virus-mediated disease. Dr. Peebles is also the Section Chief and Fellowship Training Director for Allergy/Immunology at Vanderbilt. His research focuses on the interaction of allergic disease and respiratory syncytial virus in causing airways responsiveness. While his lab is interested in studying host immune responses to both allergens and viruses, it is particularly interested in the contribution of group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2) as an initiator of lung inflammatory responses. (October 31, 2026)

Linda Bockenstedt, M.D.

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.

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)

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

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)

Stephanie N. Taylor, M.D.

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
• David J. Smith, M.D., Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, U.S. Department of Defense