Biography

Biography

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Maria C. Freire, Ph.D.

Director

Maria C. Freire, Ph.D., has been a director since April 2018. From November 2012 to September 2021, Dr. Freire served as President and Executive Director and as a member of the board of directors of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. Previously, she served as President and as a member of the board of directors of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation from 2008 to 2012, as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development from 2001 to 2008 and as Director of the Office of Technology Transfer at the National Institutes of Health from 1995 to 2001.

Dr. Freire has served as a member of the board of directors of Biogen Inc., a publicly held biopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of serious diseases, since June 2021, as a member of the board of directors of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., a publicly held urban office real estate investment trust uniquely focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses, since April 2012, and as a member of the board of directors of Koneksa Health, a privately held digital biomarker company, since July 2022. She has previously served on the boards of numerous national and international organizations, including the Science Board of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health and the United Nations Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Access to Medicines. Dr. Freire is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations, and she is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2017 Gold Stevie Award for “Woman of the Year,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service, the Arthur S. Fleming Award and the Bayh-Dole Award. Dr. Freire holds a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Virginia and a B.S. from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru.