President-Elect
Terrie E. Taylor, DO
College of Osteopathic Medicine, Michigan State University, United States
Biographical Information:
An “Aha!” moment while analyzing a
Drosophila cross during freshman year at Swarthmore College captivated me, but my commitment to clinical tropical research began in the Sudan in 1982. There, I came to appreciate the value (and the fun) of being “in the field,” shoulder-to-shoulder with local colleagues and face-to-face with patients. Michigan State University (MSU) has a distinguished
history of international work, and the founding Dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine said, as I left for the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in 1985, “If you come back with a research project in a developing country that would be hospitable to our students on elective, I’ll give you a
job.” When the Malawi Ministry of Health identified “severe malaria in children” as their research priority in 1987, my mentor in Liverpool, the late Malcolm Molyneux, and I teamed up. The work involved bedside care of critically ill children over the six-month “malaria season,” so I asked to spend that period in Malawi each year. The Dean agreed on the spot -- and that has been the
modus operandi ever since. Another indication of MSU’s support was the selection of my colleague in Malawi, Karl Seydel, as the first recipient of the Edson Endowed Professorship in 2023. The first decade was spent at the bedside (hypoglycemia, quinine kinetics, Blantyre Coma Score). An autopsy study occupied the second decade. We failed to identify the cause of death in children with cerebral malaria (CM), but we did learn that not all comatose parasitemic children have CM and that the presence of malarial retinopathy significantly improves the specificity of the clinical diagnosis. GE Healthcare donated an MRI (Malawi’s first!) to our work in 2008, and that allowed us to capture herniation, the process that had eluded us earlier, and to recognize the importance of increased brain volume. In our fourth decade, we are working with pediatric intensivists to identify critical mechanisms and potential interventions. Our well-defined patient population and the excellent care we provide have supported a wide network of collaborators (see below). Malawi’s first medical school was established in 1991. The stream of graduates created a pool of talent ripe for capacity building. A signature measures of success is within the International Centers of Excellence in Malaria Research (ICEMR) network. The primary awards for the first two rounds (2010-2017, 2017-2024) went to MSU, but through dint of much shared effort, the primary recipient for ICEMR3 is Prof. Don Mathanga at the Malaria Alert Centre, a research affiliate at the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences. I’ve hosted 20-24 final year MSU medical students for six-week electives at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital each year since 1988 – we share the “MSU House” in Blantyre. It is a rich capstone experience for them and a delight (most of the time…) for me. In conclusion, I have always felt that mine is the best job at MSU, and being able to work in Malawi for so long has been an enormous privilege.
Recap of participation in ASTMH activities:
I’ve attended the ASTMH meeting annually since returning from the Sudan in 1983. I’ve been a member of the Editorial Board of our journal since 1996. I was elected to Council in 1997 and served a six-year term. I served as the inaugural chair of the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund/ASTMH fellowship in 2001 and handed the reins to Joe Tucker in 2016. Together with others involved in that program, one of the best we as a Society offer, we published a description of its impact: Tucker JD, Hughes MA, Durvasula RV, et al., Measuring Success in Global Health Training: Data From 14 Years of a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine.
Clin Infect Dis. 2017 Jun 15;64(12):1768-1772. PMID:28369324. I am the recipient of several Society honors: Young Investigator Award, 1987; Bailey K. Ashford Medal, 2000; Craig Lecture, 2014; Ben Kean Award, 2016
Research, Clinical, Policy, Public Health, Global Health, Educational and Partnership-Building Interests, Engagement with Current and Future Members, Including International Outreach:
Research/Clinical: My work has focused nearly entirely on Malawian children with cerebral malaria, rounding twice daily on those admitted to the Paediatric Research Ward we’ve established at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. At first glance, it looks like we are doing the same thing we’ve done since 1987, but the paradigm has developed so much that the daily rounds, during which we sift our clinical observations through the current paradigm, remain fascinating. It is a delightful patient population—at the time of admission, our patients are often comatose and convulsing, but many recover within 2-3 days, and that is a joy to behold. My work has been recognized by MSU (University DistinguishedProfessor, 2003; Research Foundation Professor, 2019; Lifetime Achievement Award, Community Engagement Scholarship, 2024), and by BioMalPar (Lifetime Achievement Award, 2021). I chaired the Malaria Gordon Research Conference in 2023.
Policy: My policy contributions have been indirect; the most enjoyable was participating on the Committee for the Study on Malaria Prevention and Control: Status Review and Alternate Strategies, under the aegis of the Institute of Medicine (1989-1991). Our publication,
Malaria: Obstacles and Opportunities, was released in 1991. I’ve served on a number of WHO committees (CHEMAL, during the TDR era; Malaria Guidelines Development Group, now). Our research findings have contributed to malaria management recommendations nationally in Malawi, and internationally, at the WHO level.
Public Health: The ICEMR work (see above) has raised awareness of the importance of school age children in sustaining a reservoir of asymptomatically infected individuals. My role was more administrative; the real work was carried out by Drs. Lauren Cohee, Atupele Kapito-Tembo, Themba Mzilahowa, Charles Mangani, Alfred Matengeni, Don Mathanga, Miriam Laufer and the team in Malawi.
Educational and Partnership Building Interests: These have developed organically over the years, largely in support of shared research interests. One of the most successful was a Fogarty International Center-funded effort to train two epidemiologists (Don Mathanga and Victor Mwapasa) and one pathologist (Steve Kamiza). All three returned to Malawi in 2002-2004 and have become leaders in the College of Medicine/KUHeS there. Research collaborations in Malawi have developed with University of Maryland (Chris Plowe, Miriam Laufer, Allan Doctor), University of British Columbia (Val White, Katerina Zis), University of Rochester (Gretchen Birbeck), Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology (Susan Lewallen), University of South Florida (Kami Kim), University of Indiana (Nathan Schmidt, Adnan Bhutta), University of Glasgow (Chris Moxon), Harvard (Dan Milner, Flaminia Catteruccia), Seattle Children’s Hospital (Joe Smith), Liverpool University (Simon Glover, Nick Beare), Nationwide Children’s Hospital (Nicole O’Brien, Hunter Wynkoop), Children’s National Medical Center (Doug Postels), Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (Audrey Odom-John), and Washington University in St. Louis (Manu Goyal).
Engagement with Current and Future Members, Including International Outreach: For me, this has largely consisted of encouraging junior investigators to develop abstracts (and then working with them on posters and presentations), identifying sources of travel support for those who do NOT receive travel awards from ASTMH, participating in “speed dating” during the annual meeting, and hosting a “Friends of Malawi” gathering to facilitate networking each year at the ASTMH meeting.
Board Members
Mark Kortepeter, MD, MPH, FASTMH
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), United States
Biographical Information:
I have been the Vice President for Research and Professor of Preventive Medicine and Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) since 2020, where I oversee a $400+ million research program. Much of my work over the past two decades has focused on leading large, complex research organizations, including the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), the Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program (IDCRP) at USU, and the Special Pathogens Research Network (SPRN) out of the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). My medical training is in infectious diseases and preventive medicine, and I hold the certificate of knowledge in tropical medicine. My longstanding interest in tropical medicine began in medical school, when I traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC - formerly Zaire), and I did my medicine residency training in Hawaii, where my interest in tropical medicine blossomed. I spent 27 years as a physician in the US Army. During my military service, I worked in multiple medical and public health environments, from the bedside, running an HIV clinic in the early 1990s, to the research laboratory, to the lecture hall, and to the field. As a result of my assignment in 1998 to USAMRIID, much of my work has been focused on biodefense, where there is a significant overlap between the zoonotic diseases of concern for biodefense (anthrax, plague, viral hemorrhagic fevers) and tropical medicine. I retired from the Army in 2016 and joined the faculty at UNMC, where I served as a Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the SPRN, a national readiness platform of 10 medical centers in the United States positioned to conduct research on emerging infectious diseases. In addition to preparing for an outbreak caused by a special pathogen, we participated in several clinical trials (the ACTT trials) related to COVID-19 treatment in conjunction with the NIAID.
Recap of participation in ASTMH activities:
I believe strongly in the mission of the ASTMH, and the ASTMH is my primary professional society. I have been a member since 2000, became a fellow in 2017, and served as a member of the clinical research program committee from 2011 to 2021 (chair 2019-21). In addition to attending and speaking or hosting symposia at Annual Meetings, I served as President of the Clinical Group from 2021-22.
Research, Clinical, Policy, Public Health, Global Health, Educational and Partnership-Building Interests, Engagement with Current and Future Members, Including International Outreach:
My research and writing interests have focused on several complementary topics, including investigational vaccines, the pathophysiology of Ebola virus, care for individuals infected with highly hazardous infectious pathogens, and biodefense. I have had the good fortune to work with multiple medical and public health partners at the CDC, NIAID, the FDA and BARDA. I have especially enjoyed working with international partners at NATO as chair of the Biomedical Advisory Panel. Since leaving active military service, I have had some more flexibility to work on tropical health issues with other international partners. I spent six weeks as the Lead for Infection Prevention Control for the WHO helping to prepare Burundian hospitals and their Ebola Treatment Unit for the possible cross-border spread of Ebola virus from the North Kivu outbreak in the DRC in 2018. I also served as a consultant on COVID-19 for PAHO and deployed to the Caribbean to assist some island nations to prepare for the pandemic.
Pauline Mwinzi, PhD
WHO/AFRO, Brazzaville, Congo
Biographical Information:
As the WHO Regional Technical Officer for Schistosomiasis (SCH) and Soil-Transmitted Helminthiasis (STH) in the Africa region, my responsibilities encompass providing technical support to Member States in implementing the WHO NTD Roadmap 2030 and monitoring progress toward the elimination of SCH/STH. My academic background is anchored in Parasitology and Immunology, with a PhD completed in 2005 through training at Universiteit Utrecht Medical School, CDC Atlanta, and Kenyatta University, supported by various prestigious scholarships and fellowships, including a WHO/TDR PhD scholarship, ISID, and a Wellcome Trust Fellowship.
Before my tenure with WHO, I held the position of Chief Research Scientist and Head of the NTD Unit at the Center for Global Health Research (CGHR) at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) in Kisumu, Kenya. My role involved leading as the Principal Investigator for KEMRI-CDC collaborative projects and for initiatives with significant global partnerships such as SCORE and EFINTD. In 2010, WHO/TDR recognized me as one of six fellows for Research Leadership, highlighting my commitment and contributions to the field.
My professional development includes specialized training in Bioethics at the University of Cape Town and Research Leadership at the University of Amsterdam. I played a pivotal role in founding the African Research Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (ARNTD) and was its chair from 2012 to 2016. My efforts also led to the creation and successful convening of the KEMRI Annual NTD Conference, which became a significant event before its integration with INCO-NTD.org.
In addition to my research and leadership roles, I have been actively involved in academia, teaching graduate-level courses in Bioethics, Immunology, and Parasitology at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST) and Maseno University, Kenya, from 2004 to 2017. My tenure as chair of the KEMRI Annual Scientific Health Conference (KASH) from 2014 to 2016 allowed me to introduce the "American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) in Kenya," further establishing a platform for scientific exchange and collaboration.
My career is marked by extensive experience in leading large research teams, program management, capacity building, fundraising and advocacy in public health policy. I am honored to serve on several international scientific advisory committees, contributing to the global network of research on tropical diseases. Beyond my professional engagements, I am dedicated to mobilizing professionals for community development initiatives in my home country, demonstrating a commitment to both scientific advancement and societal improvement.
Recap of participation in ASTMH activities:
I have made significant contributions to the field of tropical medicine and hygiene, particularly in the control and research of Schistosomiasis and Soil-Transmitted Helminthiasis (STH) in the African region. My career reflects a strong commitment to advancing the understanding and treatment of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), with substantial leadership in academic settings and community health/research/science efforts, with many much of my work presented at ASTMH in more than 100 abstracts over the years.
Presentations at ASTMH Annual Meetings: My engagement with the ASTMH has been marked by numerous presentations at the Annual Meetings since 2019 (I have hardly missed the Annual Meeting), discussing the outcomes of significant research projects on schistosomiasis and its control strategies. These presentations have provided valuable insights into the epidemiology, treatment and control of NTDs, showcasing my expertise and contributions to the field.
Travel awards to ASTMH Meetings: As a graduate student I received several travel awards to ASTMH meetings, highlighting my active participation and contribution to the field. One of these included my attendance at the 64th ASTMH meeting in Philadelphia in 2015, where I presented on a key, four-year outcomes of Kenya's randomized trials for schistosomiasis control. My involvement with the ASTMH spans over years, attending and contributing to Annual Meetings in various capacities, demonstrating my continuous engagement with the international tropical medicine community.
Roles in Global Health: I have held key positions, including my current role as the Technical Officer/ Regional Technical Officer for SCH/STH at WHO/AFRO, where I advised on control and elimination strategies in the African Region. Additionally, I served as the Chief Research Officer at the Center for Global Health Research (CGHR), Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), demonstrating my leadership in managing large-scale research projects and teams.
Academic and Community Leadership: Founding the ARNT.ORG with regional colleagues and chairing the KEMRI Annual NTD Conference and the KEMRI Annual Scientific and Health (KASH) Conference are among my notable achievements. I also established the ASTMH in Kenya, convened alongside KASH, further indicating my leadership in fostering academic and research excellence within the tropical medicine community.
Mentorship and Capacity Building: I have been instrumental in mentoring the next generation of scientists and program managers, supervising Postdoctoral Fellows and PhD students who have moved on to establish their research careers. My dedication to mentoring is evident in my efforts to provide young scientists with opportunities to publish and share their research findings, significantly contributing to capacity building in the field of NTDs.
My comprehensive experience, from my active involvement in ASTMH activities to my leadership roles in research and community health efforts, showcases my commitment to advancing the field of tropical medicine and hygiene. My work exemplifies a profound dedication to combating NTDs, mentoring future leaders, and contributing to global health initiatives through research, leadership, education, and community engagement. My career embodies a profound commitment to the advancement of tropical medicine and hygiene resonating with the core objectives of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, making my involvement and contributions highly valuable to the society and its mission.
Research, Clinical, Policy, Public Health, Global Health, Educational and Partnership-Building Interests, Engagement with Current and Future Members, Including International Outreach:
Throughout my career, I have been deeply committed to advancing the understanding, treatment, and prevention of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), with a particular focus on Schistosomiasis and Soil-Transmitted Helminthiasis. My work spans across research, clinical applications, policy formulation, public and global health strategies, educational endeavors, and the fostering of partnerships, reflecting a holistic approach to combating these diseases.
Research and Clinical Interests: My research interests lie in the epidemiology, immunology and control/operational research of NTDs, with significant contributions to understanding the interaction between HIV-1 and NTDs. I have led and participated in multi-country collaborative projects, notably with SCORE and EFINTD, focusing on operational research for NTD control. My clinical interests extend to the practical implementation of scientific research projects and evaluating their outcomes, aiming to bridge the gap between research findings and clinical applications.
Policy and Public Health: As the WHO Regional Technical Officer for Schistosomiasis/STH in the African Region, I have played a pivotal role in advising Member States on implementing the WHO NTD Roadmap 2030 and tracking progress towards elimination. This role underscores my interest in shaping policies that align with global health priorities and the practical aspects of public health interventions aimed at controlling and eliminating NTDs.
Global Health: My global health endeavors are marked by leadership roles, including serving on several international scientific advisory committees for research networks on tropical diseases. I am dedicated to mobilizing resources and knowledge to address health challenges globally, particularly within under-resourced settings, through evidence-based strategies and international collaboration.
Educational Initiatives: I have a strong commitment to education, demonstrated through my involvement in teaching postgraduate courses in Immunology, Parasitology, and Bioethics, and my efforts in mentoring the next generation of scientists and program managers. I founded and convened the Annual KEMRI NTD Conference, providing a platform for young scientists to disseminate their research findings and learn from peers and leaders in the field.
Partnership-Building: Building and nurturing partnerships has been a cornerstone of my work, as evidenced by my roles in establishing collaborations with international institutions and researchers. I have led teams in securing significant research funding, facilitating multi-disciplinary research projects that bring together experts from various fields to address complex health issues.
Engagement with Current and Future Members, Including International Outreach: Engagement with the wider scientific community and stakeholders in health is a priority for me. I have established the ASTMH in Kenya in 2015, providing a local hub for professionals interested in tropical medicine and hygiene to connect and collaborate. It would be helpful to see these kind of initiatives grow. My vision for future engagement includes expanding international outreach, fostering inclusivity and enhancing the exchange of knowledge and resources across borders to tackle NTDs and other global health challenges collectively.
In conclusion, my career reflects a comprehensive engagement with the many facets of health science, from research and clinical work to policy formulation, public health initiatives, global health strategies, educational efforts, and the development of fruitful partnerships. I am committed to continuing this work, contributing to the global fight against tropical diseases, and inspiring the next generation of health professionals.
Board Member Representing Students, Trainees, Residents or Post-docs Candidates
Christina Paraggio, BS, BA, PhD student
Yale University, United States
Biographical Information:
I am a second-year PhD. student at Yale University in the Department of Microbial Pathogenesis who is passionate about parasitology and conducting research with a global impact. I graduated from the University of Miami in 2021 with a BS in Microbiology and Immunology (Departmental Honors), a program that allowed me to explore my interest in parasitic diseases through coursework and research experiences. During my undergraduate career, I also earned a BA in Spanish, with the goal of facilitating international collaborations and effective scientific communication. To gain an understanding of the factors that contribute to the establishment and persistence of parasitic diseases, I also pursued minors in Public Health, Biochemistry, Biology and Chemistry. As an undergraduate, I gained experience working with systems of parasitic diseases and contributed to projects that assessed the antimalarial activities of novel compounds and studied host immune responses to leishmaniasis. To gain experience in global health research, I joined a second lab and used survey data from previously conducted studies in Pokuase, Ghana, to assess the test-retest reliability of a common household water insecurity scale in field settings. My involvement in these projects galvanized my interest in conducting research that prioritizes the needs of vulnerable populations, and this remains one of my research priorities to this day. Following graduation, I worked for a year in a cell biology lab at Harvard Medical School to gain technical experience in researching mechanisms of disease progression and pathogenesis before applying to graduate programs in Microbiology. In 2022, I was accepted into the Microbiology PhD program at Yale University and recently passed my candidacy exam in November 2023. My research interests include mechanisms of hookworm biology that can be exploited to improve health outcomes for affected populations, and the development of high-sensitivity assays for the detection of helminth infections. My involvement with ASTMH as a Student Member since 2020 has been instrumental in guiding my career goals by providing role models in the fields of tropical medicine and global health. I aspire towards a career as a professor and PI that would allow me to share my passion for neglected parasitic disease research with the next generation of students while guiding them towards careers of maximal global impact.
Recap of participation in ASTMH activities:
I was first introduced to ASTMH in 2020 as an undergraduate at the University of Miami. COVID-19 shutdowns had just forced campus evacuations and lab closures, and my PI suggested an ASTMH membership as a way to stay engaged with advances in parasitology and tropical medicine. Through my involvement as a student member, I have attended two Annual Meetings (2020, 2023) and have used these opportunities to learn about cutting-edge research, gain perspective on how global health issues are handled domestically and abroad, and make invaluable connections with researchers at every stage of their careers. I have found additional community in the ACMCIP and ACGH subgroups and am motivated by the diverse legion of scientists at all career stages who are committed to addressing questions in parasitology and global health. As a graduate student, I am excited to expand my involvement in the Society while advocating for activities to increase trainee engagement. Throughout my education, I have sought out involvement in organizations that prioritize scientific outreach and communication. As an undergraduate, I wrote for a campus scientific journalism magazine, Scientifica, moderated a local high school science bowl through the Beta Beta Beta Biological Honor Society, and served as the Vice President for the University of Miami chapter of Project Sunshine, an organization that facilitates play-based learning activities for pediatric patients in local hospitals. I also worked for three years as a Teaching Fellow for an Honors Biology course and, as a senior, developed case studies for use in course recitation sessions. During my year as a Research Associate at Harvard Medical School, I joined the Model Organism Zoo outreach group. With this organization, I helped facilitate activities that introduced school-aged children in urban areas to careers in STEM and the use of model organisms in research. As a graduate student, I have continued with these interests and am currently a Teaching Fellow for a new course designed to introduce public health students to topics in immunology. In addition, I am a member of the Yale Student Science Diplomats, an organization dedicated to effective communication of science to policymakers and to the public. In the lab, I have had the privilege of training an undergraduate, post-baccalaureate researcher, and international visiting scientist in a qPCR-based helminth detection assay that I helped to develop and optimize. This past summer, I travelled to southeastern Guatemala as a field leader for a study to assess the prevalence and intensity of soil-transmitted helminthiases in rural communities. By interacting with hospital workers, community health workers and families in Spanish, I gained an improved understanding of the complexities underlying helminthiases and the importance of equitable international research partnerships that will continue to influence the scope of my research moving forward. My involvement in these projects has provided valuable experience in scientific communication, outreach and leadership, and has prepared me to take on the responsibilities associated with a role as Board Member of ASTMH.
Research, Clinical, Policy, Public Health, Global Health, Educational and Partnership-Building Interests, Engagement with Current and Future Members, Including International Outreach:
I strive to conduct research that applies cutting-edge techniques to neglected diseases while engaging in equitable research and training collaborations. My training in parasitology began as a sophomore at the University of Miami, working with a team of students in Dr. Arba Ager’s lab to determine the antimalarial activity of novel drug compounds in mice. My contributions to this project were the subject of my graduation thesis, for which I was awarded Departmental Honors in Microbiology and Immunology. I continued working in this lab throughout my undergraduate career and worked with Dr. Ager to develop a project to investigate the role of perforin-2 in host response to leishmaniasis. Unfortunately, this project was abrogated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, I was introduced to ASMTH by Dr. Ager as a way to stay connected to cutting-edge research in parasitology and global health. To gain research experience in global health, I joined a second lab, led by Dr. Justin Stoler, and used survey data collected in Pokuase, Ghana, to assess the test-retest reliability of the Household Water Insecurity Experiences scale. Following graduation, I joined the lab of the late Dr. Robin Reed at Harvard Medical School to gain technical experience in the molecular mechanisms of disease. In this role, I contributed to projects that studied RNA/DNA binding proteins and splicing factors in the contexts of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and hematopoietic malignancies. In 2022, I was accepted into the Microbiology Ph.D. program at Yale University and joined the lab of Dr. Michael Cappello, a
recipient of the Bailey K. Ashford medal and an inaugural member of the ACMCIP subgroup, for my thesis studies. For my first project in the lab, I used human fecal samples previously collected in collaboration with ASTMH members at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research at the University of Ghana to develop a qPCR-based assay capable of detecting hookworm eggs at a 5x greater sensitivity than Kato Katz, the current gold standard of detection. I am interested in developing this method into a multiplex assay to detect the three most common soil-transmitted helminthiases (Ascaris, Trichuris, hookworm), and screening additional field samples collected in Ghana and Guatemala. My experience working as part of field team in southeastern Guatemala this past summer provided a valuable experience in establishing and fostering equitable research partnerships, which is one of my long-term career goals. My current thesis research seeks to profile the glycoproteomes of human hookworms and define glycan-mediated strategies of hookworm pathogenesis. An improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying disease establishment and progression will accelerate the development of interventions and therapeutics that may be valuable to elimination efforts across the world. I am passionate about mentoring young scientists and aspire towards a career in academia as a professor and PI, a career that would allow me to engage with and train the next generation of parasitologists while leading research projects that prioritize diseases of global importance.