Regina Rabinovich, Elected Future President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Regina Rabinovich, director of the Malaria Elimination Initiative has been elected future president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), the largest world association in the field, in recognition of her strong track record in global health. The announcement has taken place during the ASTMH’s 65th annual meeting in Atlanta, USA, where Patrice F. Walker, director of Global Health Pathway at the University of Minnesota, has taken up the current presidency. The ASTMH president mandate is for one year.

With over 26 years’ experience in global health, where she has worked in the fields of research, public health and philanthropy, Rabinovich joined ISGlobal in 2013 and currently leads the Malaria Elimination Initiative and the Steering Committee of the Malaria Eradication Scientific Alliance (MESA), including the process to update the Malaria Eradication Research Agenda (malERA refresh). Previously, she was director of the Infectious Diseases division at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Chief of the Clinical and Regulatory Affairs Branch at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and director-founder of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative. Rabinovich currently combines her responsibilities at ISGlobal with a position as ExxonMobil Malaria Scholar at Harvard University.

Rabinovich’s work program as ASTMH president will focus on increasing access to knowledge generated by high-quality research (from basic research to epidemiology, social sciences and health system studies) in order to tackle global health challenges, and on promoting the participation and engagement of different stakeholders: from researchers and clinicians to product-development partnerships, governments and multilateral organizations.

“This is an exciting – and challenging – opportunity of chairing an organization that for more than a century has been fighting diseases that affect the most vulnerable populations” states Regina Rabinovich, who will take up the position in November 2017. “As an independent organization, we will try to provide a balanced and informed opinion on global challenges that result not only from traditional tropical diseases but also from emergent diseases such as Zika or Ebola” she added.

ISGlobal general director, Antoni Plasència, expressed his “most sincere congratulations to Regina, whose election as future president of ASTMH is a great honour for ISGlobal” and added “I am sure that her leadership will open new opportunities for the improvement of global health. Our solid and sustained collaboration with her will certainly be further reinforced”.