Advisory Committee

An author whose books have won literally dozens of awards, and two of his books have involved him directly in policy-making. The National Academies of Sciences named The Great Influenza: The story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (2004), his study of the 1918 pandemic, the year’s outstanding book on science or medicine, and he was a member of the initial working group which developed recommendations for pandemic preparedness and response. He also served on the federal government's Infectious Disease Board of Experts and has advised the private sector as well as federal, state, and World Health Organization officials on influenza preparedness and risk communication.

The Society of American Historians named his earlier book Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (1997) the year’s best book of American history, and in 2005 the New York Public Library named it one of the fifty best books of all kinds, whether fiction, non-fiction, or poetry, in the preceding fifty years. In 2006 the National Academies of Sciences invited Barry to give the Abel Wolman Distinguished Lecture, which annually honors contributions to water-related knowledge; he is the only non-scientist ever to give that lecture. After Hurricane Katrina, the Louisiana Congressional delegation asked him to chair a bipartisan working group on flood control, and from 2007-2013 he served on both the board which oversees levee districts in metropolitan New Orleans and the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, which develops and implements the hurricane protection plan for the state. An initiative he launched on hurricane protection has been the subject of articles in publications ranging from The Economist and Der Spiegel to The New York Times Magazine, and he has served on the advisory board for M.I.T’s Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals.

A guest on every broadcast network in the United States, the BBC, and other foreign outlets, he has also contributed to award-winning television documentaries and his articles have appeared in scientific journals such as Nature and the Journal of Infectious Disease as well as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fortune, Time, Newsweek, and Esquire. 

Sally is a writer and editor for BDO’s global tax publications and website, focusing on global tax policy and developments. Previously, she held executive positions with public companies in the media and entertainment industry including Discovery Communications and Gannett, where she was responsible for handling tax matters relating to their business operations and corporate transactions. Having developed an interest in brain science issues, she also serves on the Board of Governors of the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

A native of Clarksdale, Mississippi, she received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Mississippi. She currently resides in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Graduated from Hamilton College with a BA in History specializing in Thai foreign policy in the 19th Century.  He received his MD from the Johns Hopkins Medical School and his MPH at the School of Hygiene and Public Health, focusing on international health.

Dr. Cobey is a board certified orthopedic surgeon in an independent practice that specializes in major trauma, spine reconstruction, and total joint replacement.  He has been the team doctor for Gallaudet University (school for the deaf) for twenty years and he is an instructor on International Humanitarian Law and Disaster Relief for the Red Cross. He holds the rank of Professor of Orthopedics at Georgetown University and Senior Associate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has been guest lecturer at Yale University, George Washington University and other medical schools.

As a member of Physicians for Human Rights, Dr. Cobey shared in the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines.  He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Johns Hopkins University in 2001 and in 2002 the Frank Annunzio award from the Christopher Columbus Foundation.  He is president of the School’s Society of Alumni and a member of the Dean’s Alumni Advisory Council.

In 1992 Dr. Cobey won the Charles R. Drew Award from the American Red Cross.  In June 1998, he was awarded the American Red Cross’s International Humanitarian Service Award.  He is author of numerous articles on orthopedics and international relief.

Senior vice president and investment counselor for Capital Group Private Client Services. Prior to joining the organization in 1998, he spent eight years with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as an executive director of the Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation and director of principal gifts across the campus. Before that, he was executive director of the Children’s Health Fund in New York City and a director of programs for Helen Keller International. He also worked in international public health with a Swiss foundation for nearly a decade. Bill earned an MA in educational psychology from the California State University, Hayward and a BA in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. He serves on the board of directors of the Venice Family Health Clinic, UCLA Library, UCLA Board of Governors and the Health Advisory Board for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Bill holds a Series 65 license and is based in our West Los Angeles office.

A computer software entrepreneur having run or started half a dozen companies over the last twenty-five years. He is currently working on his start-up, Vinyl Dreams, a virtual music studio.  Most recently he was Chairman and CEO of Asset Control and prior to that, Double-Take Software. He has served on many corporate and non-profit boards and currently is a member of the Health Advisory Committee of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Chairs its Advisory Committee for the Center for Refugees and Disaster Response. Dean is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Berklee College of Music and for the New England Aquarium. He is active in USSA Freestyle skiing program and is a member of its Eastern Freestyle Competition Committee and a certified judge. Dean teaches part time at Leipzig, Germany’s HHL School of Management and was awarded its Honorary Professorship of Entrepreneurship. He is also a musician, playing jazz and rock.

Barbara has spent most of her adult life involved in the field of philanthropy. She has 43 years of experience working in national and international nonprofit organizations and in the Federal Government, including more than three decades as the chief development officer at National Public Radio (NPR), The Phillips Collection, and The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and as co-director of development at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Fast Company selected her as one of the Fast 50 in 2005 for her work as NPR’s VP for Development and Executive Director of the NPR Foundation, which she helped establish. She also was an adjunct professor in the Arts Management Graduate Program at American University. 

Since retiring in 2013, Barbara has continued to work with nonprofit organizations as a Board member, consultant, volunteer, and donor. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of The Phillips Collection where she chairs the Development and Campaign Committee and on the Board of Georgetown Village. Past Board affiliations include Theatre Washington and the Helen Hayes Awards and the College of Arts and Science Advisory Board at the University of Mary Washington, where she was honored with a Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2006. Other current and past affiliations include Salzburg Global Seminars, the White House Historical Association, WAMU, and WETA. 

Barbara lives in Washington, DC and Lewes Delaware with her husband Bob, who retired from private law practice in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia. 

Louise Hilsen is a consultant at a Washington, DC law firm where her work focuses on government food, nutrition and telecommunications programs that serve low-income Americans.  After the repeal in 2016 of a longstanding US Customs’ provision that previously had allowed goods made with forced labor into the US, Ms.  Hilsen, a non-lawyer, has helped industries understand the business impact of the changed regulatory landscape. Ms. Hilsen also works on nutrition, health and wellness initiatives with corporations, foundations and academic institutions.

Louise headed the Washington, DC office of Nestlé USA, a subsidiary of the world’s largest food company.  She made contributions to sustainability and labor practices in the cocoa industry, was a negotiator of the 2001 Harkin-Engel protocol, helped form and lead the Global Issues Group, was active in the International Cocoa Initiative and the World Cocoa Foundation as well as the Fair Labor Association and participates in the US DOL's Child Labor Cocoa Coordinating Group (CLCCG).  Louise served as Deputy Executive Director of President Clinton's Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, also known as the Kerrey-Danforth Commission and before that spent more than a decade on Capitol Hill as a key aide, including Legislative Director and Chief of Staff, to Members of Congress.

In addition to her participation on the Advisory Council, Louise serves on the Board of the Food Research and Action Center, the leading anti-hunger policy center in Washington, DC and is a longtime Board Member and former Board Chair of Bread for the City, the largest nonprofit provider of direct social services to the working poor of the District of Columbia.

Editor and medical research advocate with a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is a member of the JHSPH Health Advisory Board and has served on the School's Institutional Review Board for a decade. She serves on the advisory committee for the Center for Public Health and Human Rights, and she chairs the School's Centennial.

Ms. Himelfarb is a member of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Institutional Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee (ISCRO), and was recently re-appointed by the Governor to the Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission. As immediate past Chair of the Commission, she increased collaborations between public and private entities and leveraged funds by establishing interstate research partnerships.

She is a founder, past chair, and the first Honorary Lifetime Board Member of the Maryland Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). Her leadership helped the Chapter transition from a small group of concerned families to a major, statewide organization, raising millions of dollars for diabetes research. She also served on the JDRF International Board of Directors, and currently sits on its International Board of Chancellors.

Ms. Himelfarb reviewed research grants for JDRF for many years, testified before the FDA on diabetes related matters, and served on various advisory committees for the National Institutes of Health. Her advocacy efforts include spearheading a successful national campaign for a Diabetes Awareness US Postage Stamp and leading a state-wide grassroots coalition to help secure the legislation that authorizes Maryland to fund human stem cell research.

Ms. Himelfarb has received several humanitarian awards for raising public awareness about diabetes and support for medical research. She was also honored at the 2009 World Stem Cell Summit for her efforts to advance stem cell research. In 2010, she received the Johns Hopkins University Heritage Award, and, in 2012, The Daily Record named her one of Maryland's Top 100 Women.

Director of Corporate Contributions and Community Relations at Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Lin’s responsibilities include managing the Company’s response to natural disasters and humanitarian crises, and responsibilities for the Company’s product donations portfolio.

Dr. Lin developed the product donation program strategy to embody Johnson & Johnson values with respect to the health and well-being of women and children. In ensuring that J&J is effective in responding to global humanitarian and natural disasters, Dr. Lin also manages and develops the relationships with major international governmental as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Since joining the group in 2005, Dr. Lin has led the development of the program Children Without Worms, the largest global drug donation effort by a pharmaceutical company for the treatment and prevention of intestinal worms.

Dr. Lin started his professional career as a research scientist in the AIDS and Hepatitis division of the diagnostics sector of Johnson & Johnson. With successes and experience in new product development, he advanced through several other divisions of J&J that included positions in Quality Systems, Operations Information Management, and Strategic Sourcing. With 15 years of in-depth experience in the inner workings of this multi-national pharmaceutical company, he was well positioned to bring an operational perspective to the corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of J&J.  Dr. Lin holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from UCLA.

Senior Advisor for Science Communications and Advocacy for the African Academy of Sciences in Nairobi, Kenya. She was prior Chief Executive Officer of the nonprofit scientific publisher and advocacy organization the Public Library of Science (PLOS) . PLOS publishes leading open access scientific journals, including PLOS Biology, PLOS Medicine and PLOS ONE. She was formerly President of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization Society for Science & the Public, and publisher of the award-winning Science News family of publications.

Marincola was for fourteen years Executive Director of the American Society for Cell Biology, a scientific society which is a leader in Congressional advocacy for biomedical research funding, promoting access to the scientific literature, and the support of women and underrepresented minorities in science. For its work, Marincola accepted the 2004 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from the President of the United States. The ASCB honored her service in 2002 by naming her, with the late actor-advocate Christopher Reeve, the first Citizen Member of the Society.

Marincola served on the founding National Advisory Committee to PubMed Central of the National Institutes of Health from 2000-2003, as Director of the Joint Steering Committee for Public Policy (now the Coalition for the Life Sciences) from 1991-2005, on the Board of Directors of PLOS from 2005-2011, and on the Advisory Council of the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University from 2002-2012. She is the only nonscientist to be named the Fae Golden Kass Lecturer at Harvard Medical School.

Marincola was Director of Development for Stanford University Hospital and held other administrative posts at Stanford, where she also earned her bachelor’s degree in 1981 and her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1986. She has served as Principal Investigator or co-PI on several Federal research grants, and is author or co-author of dozens of articles published in journals and magazines, including Harvard Business Review, Cell and Science.

J. Stephen Morrison is senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) where he founded and heads its Global Health Policy Center. Dr. Morrison currently directs the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America's Health Security, a major effort started in 2018 that addresses the geopolitical dimensions of pandemic preparedness and response and the requirements for a more coherent and sustainable US approach, at home and abroad. He is an authority on US foreign policy and a regular commentator on China, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and infectious diseases and humanitarian emergencies. Since 2017, he has directed and produced a series of video documentaries, most notably The New Barbarianism, an award- winning study of violence against the health sector in Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan. 2020-2022 he has been honored as the James S. Schlesinger Distinguished Scholar at the University of Virginia. He served in senior positions in the Clinton administration, as senior committee staff in the House Foreign Affairs Committee,  and taught for 12 years at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin and is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale College.

Dr. Peter Okebukola is a Partner at McKinsey & Company. He is a leader in McKinsey’s Global Health, Health and Health Care Systems and Pharmaceuticals and Supply Chain Management Practices.

Peter is a trusted advisor to governments and has worked extensively with international public health organizations including USAID, DFID, Global Fund, Gates Foundation, UNFPA and UNICEF on numerous healthcare topics including humanitarian health, vaccines strategy and access, health systems transformations, integrating vertical supply chains and implementing country-level health programming efforts across many developing countries. He has also worked with many private sector organizations including large payors and pharmaceutical companies in Africa, Europe, the US and beyond.

Tarek is a growth-oriented executive with over 20 years of experience leading large, multifaceted organizations. He has successfully launched brands and led divisions at companies such as AstraZeneca and Novartis across the United States, Europe, South America, Japan, and the Middle East. His expertise spans therapeutic areas within highly competitive and complex healthcare categories. Tarek believes that leadership is not about having all the answers, but about creating an environment where teams are deeply connected to their purpose and the people they serve.

In 2022, Tarek joined Otsuka as President & CEO of Otsuka’s North America Pharmaceutical Business. Driven by a personal passion for improving lives, he leads Otsuka’s efforts to develop and commercialize innovative products and solutions while advocating for policies and programs that address unmet medical needs and untapped market opportunities. His commitment to empowering and supporting those around him fosters innovation to directly impact patients' lives.

Tarek holds a BS in Biology, a BBA in Business from the American University of Beirut, and an MBA from McGill University. He is fluent in five languages.

Senior Advisor for Business and Human Rights at Human Rights First, responsible for managing initiatives to address the human rights impact of global business operations. She serves on the Boards of the Fair Labor Association, the Global Network Initiative, the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and the Temporary Steering Committee of the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Providers. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where she teaches a course on human rights and corporate accountability. Prior to joining Human Rights First, Ms. Roggensack practiced law with Hogan Lovells L.L.P., chairing the firm's Latin America Practice Group. During Ms. Roggensack's nearly 20 year career in private legal practice, she counseled clients on bilateral and multilateral trade agreements and sector specific arrangements; represented private sector interests in World Trade Organization dispute settlement proceedings; advised multinational corporations on U.S. and Latin American investments and led in industry task force and coalition efforts.

Ms. Roggensack has served as an advisor to numerous private and quasi-governmental organizations on democratic transition, rule of law, and economic recovery initiatives and U.S. policy toward Latin America. She is a member of the board of the Due Process of Law Foundation, and past president of the Washington Foreign Law Society.

Ann Sacher is a retired general surgeon and active community volunteer. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Barnard College and the Advisory Board for Columbia University’s Global Mental Health Program. She recently joined the board of The Lost Women of Science – a non-profit educational organization with the overarching goal of inspiring girls and young women to embark on careers in STEM. Last year she completed two terms as Chair of the Board of the Scarsdale Adult School – an approximately 5,000-student continuing education program that offers an enriching and varied curriculum to lifelong learners primarily based in suburban New York. In addition, Ann taught Medical Terminology, Anatomy, and Physiology at Lehman College (a senior college of the City University of New York) in the Bronx for ten years.

Ann holds a BA in Economics from Barnard College and an MD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She completed her general surgery residency at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. She lives in suburban New York with her husband.

Frances Stead Sellers is an associate editor of The Washington Post, where she has worked as a senior writer, a senior editor and as a key moderator for the newsroom’s live platform, Washington Post Live, where she interviews lead thinkers across politics, the arts and the sciences. Frances ran the newsroom’s Health, Science and Environmental desk during the battle over healthcare reform, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. She was subsequently editor of The Post’s signature Style section, in charge of cultural coverage. 

As a senior writer, Frances was a key member of the team that covered the Covid-19 pandemic, with a particular interest in public health and primary care—topics she focused on for The Post’s award-winning coverage of the life expectancy crisis in the United States. 

Sellers joined The Washington Post from Civilization, the bi-monthly magazine of the Library of Congress, which won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in its first year of publication. Frances started her career as the manuscript editor of Daedalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Frances is often called upon to explain U.S. current events on the BBC and other international outlets.  She is a frequent moderator for idea festivals and academic conferences and leads the twice-yearly Future Trends Forum for the BankInter Foundation in Madrid, bringing together experts to explore innovations designed to tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems. 

A native of Great Britain, Frances graduated from Oxford University and came to the United States as a British Thouron Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Dr. Seema Shah serves as the Epidemiology and Immunization Services Branch Medical Director for the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency.   Dr. Shah is a pediatric emergency medicine physician who previously served as the Medical Director of the Emergency Department at Rady Children’s Hospital.  She is a Professor of Pediatrics and was the Interim Chief of the Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of California San Diego.  

Her educational background includes undergraduate and medical degrees from University of Missouri and residency and fellowship at the University of California, San Diego.  She completed her MPH at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2021 with a certification in epidemiology.

Dr. Anne Baber Wallis is faculty in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences. She was director of the department’s MPH in Global Maternal and Child Health. Dr. Wallis’ career is focused on making a serious and substantive contribution to what we do, what we think, and how we think about global maternal, newborn, and child health, including maternal and neonatal death, child nutrition, and the social position and health of women. Her work focuses on novel program evaluation and epidemiologic research methods want to improve to lend insight into the upstream predicates of maternal and neonatal health. Dr. Wallis has published 45+ peer-reviewed manuscripts along with dozens of monographs and editorials. Current research includes estimation of preeclampsia incidence and trends in the US, perinatal outcomes in Romania, women’s health in Armenia, menstrual hygiene among young Nigerian girls, and research about illicit financial flows in west Africa and how monetary diversion affects maternal and infant mortality. Emerging interests include maternal and neonatal health in climate emergencies. She teaches seminal classes in global health, maternal and child health, perinatal and reproductive epidemiology, child health and development, and social epidemiology. Dr. Wallis is a 1997 and 2003 graduate of Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Maternal and Child Health.

Eileen Shields-West served as a correspondent of TIME Magazine and San Francisco Bureau Chief for TIME. She has reported for CBS, CNN, and NPR, and written a book on political campaigns called "The World Almanac of Political Campaigns" (1992). Ms. Shields-West also edited and contributed to "Choosing the Right Educational Path for Your Child" (2008), a book on 21st-century schools. She is chair emeritus of Refugees International, a leading non-profit organization that advocates for refugees and the internally displaced; she traveled to such places as Darfur, South Sudan, Rwanda, the Congo, Thailand Bangladesh, and Cambodia to advocate on refugee issues. She is currently chair of the board of The SEED Foundation, which is responsible for setting up the first public charter boarding school in the nation. Shields-West also sits on the board of IREX, Fairwinds – Nantucket’s Counseling Center, and is a member of Georgetown University’s MSFS Advisory Board. She volunteers as a Bookpal in D.C. public schools. She holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

HRH Princess Sarah Zeid is a global maternal and newborn health advocate.

Princess Sarah is Chair of Every Woman Every Child EveryWhere, a movement championing prioritization of, and innovation for, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health in humanitarian and fragile settings as the Global Strategy for Women and Children’s Health and Agenda 2030 move into implementation.  

Princess Sarah is on the board of the Women’s Refugee Committee, a member of the advisory board for the Women’s Rights Division, Human Rights Watch, and the UNHCR Advisory Group on Gender, Forced Displacement and Protection.

She holds a BA in International Relations from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, and a MSc in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.