Maria Freire
Maria C. Freire, Ph.D., is the President and Executive Director of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). She also is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and Council on Foreign Relations. Freire works in global health, technology commercialization and intellectual property management, focusing on the discovery, development and access to medical interventions.[1][2]
Maria C. Freire, Ph.D. | |
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Born | |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | President and Executive Director of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health |
Education
A native of Lima, Peru,[3] Freire trained at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia.[4] She received a Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of Virginia[5] and completed postgraduate work in immunology and virology at the University of Virginia and at the University of Tennessee,[6] respectively, and at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship[7] as well as two AAAS Congressional Science Fellowships,[8] sponsored by the Biophysical Society and the American Society for Photobiology.
Career
Maria C. Freire was appointed President and Executive Director of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) in November 2012.[9] Prior to this appointment, Freire was the president of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation.[10] From 2001 to 2008, she was the president and chief executive officer of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development,[11] a not-for-profit organization that develops drugs to fight tuberculosis.
Freire directed the Office of Technology Transfer at the National Institutes of Health from 1995 to 2001,[12] where she oversaw the transfer of federally funded technology from the not-for-profit sector to the for-profit sector.[13] Prior to that, Freire established and headed the Office of Technology Development at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.[14]
National and international member and committee service
Freire is active on national and international boards and committees. She is a member of the Leadership Group of Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutics and Vaccines (ACTIV).[15] She was a member of the Science Board of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and served as chair from 2013 to 2015;[16] is the chair of the business advisory board of the Institute for Biomedical Research, Barcelona, Spain[17] has served as a member of the Commission on the Global Health Risk Framework for the Future of the National Academy of Medicine and the executive committee of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network.[18] Freire also served as a member of the UN Secretary General High Level Panel on Access to Medicines.[19] She also was selected as one of ten commissioners of the World Health Organization's Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH)[20] and served as a member on the International Advisory Committee for the Carlos Slim Health Institute.[21] She also served as a member of the GAVI Alliance Board from 2012 to 2015 and as an unaffiliated member as well as a member of the advisory committee to the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2008 to 2012.
In 2008, Freire was elected to the Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Medicine)[22] and is currently a member of its Cecil Awards Selection Committee. Freire was elected to the Council on Foreign Relations in 2009[23] and serves on its Committee on Membership.[24] She serves on the Board of Directors of Exelixis, Inc.,[25] and since April 2012, has served as a director on the board of the Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.[26]
Selected awards
- 1999 Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service
- 1999 Arthur S. Flemming Award
- 2002 Bayh-Dole Award, Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM)
- 2017 Washington Business Journal's Women Who Mean Business Award[27]
- 2017 Stevie Award for Woman of the Year in the government/nonprofit category[28]
- 2019 NonProfit PRO "Executive of the Year" Award,[29]
References
- "NIH Director Welcomes Three New Members to the Advisory Committee to the Director". National Institutes of Health (NIH). 2015-08-29. Retrieved 2018-04-29.
- "Nonprofit PRO Executive of the Year". Nonprofit PRO.
- https://www.nyas.org/media/3228/winter-2009-digital-issue.pdf
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariafreire/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariafreire/
- https://www.who.int/intellectualproperty/background/members/freire/en/
- https://www.nyas.org/media/3228/winter-2009-digital-issue.pdf
- https://nihrecord.nih.gov/sites/recordNIH/files/pdf/1995/NIH-Record-1995-01-31.pdf
- "Dr. Maria C. Freire Named President of The FNIH | FNIH". www.fnih.org. Retrieved 2018-04-29.
- "Lasker Foundation Appoints Global Health Leader as New President" (PDF).|website=www.laskerfoundation.org|language=en|access-date=2019-06-26}}
- "Maria Freire Appointed CEO". www.tballiance.org. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
- "Biographical Sketches of Commission Members, Consultants, and Staff". NCBI.
- "Freire To Return to Area to Head FNIH". NIH Record.
- "Dr Maria Freire". WHO.
- https://nihrecord.nih.gov/2020/05/15/nih-launches-partnership-speed-covid-19-vaccine-treatments
- "Mission Possible". FDA.
- "Maria Freire". IRB Barcelona.
- "The Neglected Dimension of Global Security" (PDF). NAS.
- "High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines". United Nations.
- "WHO announces the membership of the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health". WHO.
- "International Advisory Committee". Carlos Slim Foundation.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-03-23. Retrieved 2009-06-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-26. Retrieved 2009-10-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- https://www.cfr.org/board-directors
- https://www.exelixis.com/board-of-directors/
- https://www.are.com/meet-our-team.html
- Van Zandt, Emily. "Meet our 2017 Women Who Mean Business honorees". www.bizjournals.com.
- "2017 Stevie Award Winners – Stevie Awards". stevieawards.com.
- "Executive of the Year". nonprofitpro.com.