NIH selects Dr. Kathleen Neuzil as director of the Fogarty International Center and NIH associate director for international research

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Monica M. Bertagnolli, M.D., has named Kathleen M. Neuzil, M.D., as the 13th director of the Fogarty International Center (FIC) and NIH associate director for international research. Dr. Neuzil will be the first woman to hold the permanent FIC directorship since the center’s founding in 1968. She is currently the Myron M. Levine M.D., D.T.P.H., Endowed Professor in Vaccinology, director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health and chief of the Division of Geographic Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. She is expected to join NIH in early May.

“Dr. Neuzil has decades of experience in global health, specifically in vaccinology. Her impressive research portfolio includes clinical and epidemiological studies into dozens of infectious diseases,” said Dr. Bertagnolli. “Combined with her many years as a vaccine policy advisor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), and her experience establishing new partnerships and directing diverse organization teams, she is very well suited to lead FIC. I look forward to Dr. Neuzil joining the NIH leadership team and extend my thanks to Peter H. Kilmarx, M.D., who has been serving as the acting director of FIC since the January 2023 retirement of Roger I. Glass, M.D., Ph.D.”

Dr. Neuzil will lead FIC in its mission of supporting and facilitating global health research conducted by U.S.-based and international investigators, building partnerships between health research institutions across the globe and training the next generation of scientists to address global health needs. She will oversee FIC’s annual budget of approximately $95 million, the majority of which is distributed through the Center’s grant programs.

Dr. Neuzil’s robust research portfolio features more than 330 scientific publications on vaccines and infectious disease research. She has received NIH and other governmental and philanthropic funding throughout her career and has led collaborative research programs on a variety of diseases, including influenza, typhoid and COVID-19. She has established partnerships to address cross-cutting issues such as maternal immunization, optimizing vaccine use and ensuring sustainable vaccine uptake in low-resource settings. Dr. Neuzil has a strong commitment to mentoring the next generation of scientists and leaders in the field.

Dr. Neuzil received her undergraduate degree in zoology from the University of Maryland, College Park. She earned her M.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, and completed her internship and residency at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee. While at Vanderbilt, she also completed a fellowship in infectious diseases and earned her master’s in public health. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization. She also previously served on CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

The Fogarty International Center addresses global health challenges through innovative and collaborative research and training programs and supports and advances the NIH mission through international partnerships. For more information, visit https://www.fic.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):
NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

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