When considering the global response to the current COVID-19 pandemic, female world leaders responded particularly quickly and are leading the march towards effective solutions. Seattle was one of the earliest cities to respond by initiating clinical trials in vaccine development in a collaborative effort between the NIH, University of Washington, Kaiser Permanente, and the biotech industry. Join us for an exciting panel discussion featuring five distinguished local leaders in COVID-19 bench and clinical research, vaccine development, testing, and patient care in underserved populations. This will be a great opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue and get all of your questions answered!

Disclaimer: This event may be recorded. If so, there is a possibility your image and or voice may be a part of that recording. If you do not wish for your image to be included please turn off your camera.

Speaker Bios

Dr. Rachel Bender Ignacio is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Associate Director of the AIDS Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Washington, and Medical Director of the new COVID-19 Clinical Research Center at the at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She earned her MD and MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Washington. She then trained in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and was an Instructor at Harvard Medical School prior to returning to the University of Washington for an Infectious Diseases fellowship. She joined the faculty at UW in 2015. She is a clinical and translational HIV researcher, with studies evaluating immune responses and co-infections in HIV outcomes, in addition to HIV-associated cancer. Since March 2020, she has been leading clinical trials on COVID-19 and focusing on the intersections of COVID-19, HIV, and systemic racism.

Anisa Ibrahim is a UW Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and the Medical Director at Harborview Pediatric Clinic. Dr. Ibrahim’s specific clinical interests include caring for and outreach to immigrant and refugee populations, specifically those with medical or social complexity. She is committed to caring for low income, socially vulnerable populations with limited English proficiency in order to connect them to the resources and services they need for their health and well-being. Dr. Ibrahim is a strong advocate for community-focused work and partnerships. She is the president of the Board of Directors of the Somali Health Board, a local community organization addressing health disparities in the Somali community. Nationally, Dr. Ibrahim is an executive committee member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Immigrant Child and Family Health.

Pavitra Roychoudhury is an Acting Instructor at the University of Washington and Research Associate at Fred Hutch. She has a background in computational biology and bioinformatics, and she is passionate about using these skills to understand the spread, evolution, and control of disease-causing pathogens. Pavitra leads the genomics team within the UW Virology Lab, which has been heavily involved in clinical testing of SARS-CoV-2. She will describe how UW Virology’s efforts in sequencing the genome of SARS-CoV-2 have contributed to our understanding of this novel pathogen.

Michalina Montaño is a postdoctoral trainee in the Departments of Biochemistry and Global Health at the University of Washington. Her research interests include HIV-associated health disparities, sexual health, sexual behavior, HIV and STI prevention, and point-of-care testing. Her postdoctoral research includes an evaluation of the feasibility and impact of point-of-care testing to support HIV care among young people recently diagnosed with HIV in Cape Town. She is currently coordinating a project developing and evaluating novel point-of-care tests for COVID-19.

Dr. Anna Wald holds a MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and MPH from the University of Washington. She completed training in internal medicine at Boston City Hospital and infectious diseases at University of Washington. Dr. Wald is a clinical virologist whose research has focused on the epidemiology and natural history of viral infections, as well as clinical development of vaccines and novel therapeutics for viral infections. Her research clinic at University of Washington is one of the VTEU sites – centers funded by NIAID to evaluate investigational vaccines. Her current research portfolio includes work on HPV vaccine, syphilis vaccine, and SARS-CoV2 vaccine.