Faculty

The faculty members at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology are a major resource to their students and their community. Our professors have a variety of scientific and research backgrounds and they frequently publish their research. Please click on the name of each faculty member to view their academic experience, research expertise and current publications.

Full-Time Faculty

John L. Casey, Ph.D.

Associate Professor & Chair

Dr. Casey studies the molecular virology of hepatitis delta virus (HDV), a unique human pathogen that causes the most severe form of viral hepatitis. The 1680nt circular HDV RNA genome is the smallest known to infect man and produces just one protein. It is thus not surprising that HDV relies heavily on host functions and that its RNA is replete with unusual functional properties. These properties make investigating this virus particularly interesting and challenging. Current efforts are focused on viral RNA synthesis, which involves numerous host factors.

Marta Catalfamo, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Dr. Catalfamo’s research is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms driving immune activation in HIV infection, the major player in the pathogenesis of the infection. Immune activation leads to immune dysfunction and poor clinical outcomes and occurs despite effective inhibition of virus load by antiretroviral therapy. Therefore, understanding these mechanisms is critical to identify targets of immune intervention to restore the immune system and achieve elimination/control of the viral reservoir.

Dongmei Li, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Dr. Li’s current efforts are on DNA-mediated immune responses and drug resistance mechanisms in pathogenic fungi. Particularly notable is her focus on mitochondrial traits and antifungal drug discovery in Candida, where she has made significant contributions to understanding and combatting fungal infections. She is currently studying mitochondrial metabolic activity and its impact on candidiasis caused by the human pathogen Candida albicans.

Stephan Menne, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Dr. Menne’s research is focused on the preclinical assessment of antiviral and other therapeutic strategies in the woodchuck animal model for the management of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. He is further interested in studying innate and adaptive immunity against HBV and associated liver disease sequelae, including primary liver cancer. The overall goal is to identify viral and host targets or the development of new or improved strategies for the treatment of chronic HBV infection and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by determining the role of immune responses leading to suppression of viral replication, delay of chronic liver disease progression, and prevention of HCC development. Dr. Menne is Director of Ph.D. Program in Microbiology & Immunology.

Ginger Shipp, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Dr. Shipp’s expertise is in bacterial enteric disease caused by Salmonella, Enterococcus and Campylobacter, public health microbiology and bacterial evolution. She is the Director of the M.S. Program in Microbiology and Immunology. 

Tomoko Steen, Ph.D.

Professor

Dr. Steen’s expertise is in genetics and science policy. Over the years, she has been active in many scientific research projects ranging from theoretical population genetics (molecular clock) to the epidemiology of antibiotic-resistant strains. Currently, she is working on microbiomics, focusing on the biological effects of radiation on gut microbiota and the gut-brain axis in LEO/ISS. Recently, she has also investigated the effects of COVID-19 infections on the gut microbiome and immune systems, including cases of long-term COVID-19 and has engaged in international collaborations regarding COVID-19’s public health management in Asia, Russia, and Oceania. Dr. Steen is the Director of two MS Programs: in Biohazardous Threat Agents & Emerging Infectious Diseases, and Biomedical Science Policy & Advocacy as well as the Concentration in Biomedical Science Policy & Advocacy.

Tadahisa Teramoto, M.D., Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Dr. Teramoto started his career as a clinical physician in internal medicine in Japan. He received a fellowship at NCI/NIH in 1997 and moved to Prof. Padmanabhan’s laboratory at Georgetown University to focus on flavivirus research in 2000. Since then, he has built up laboratory experience in flavivirus research. Dr. Teramoto succeeded the laboratory after Prof. Padmanabhan’s retirement in 202.

Center for Global Health Science & Security Faculty

Sharon Abramowitz, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Dr. Abramowitz is a medical anthropologist, sociologist, and psychiatric epidemiologist who specializes in community engagement, mental health, gender violence, epidemic preparedness and response, and data sharing in crises; and has been a leading global advocate for strengthening social science and risk communications and community engagement (RCCE) capacity, metrics, and utilization in public health emergencies.

Rebecca Katz, Ph.D., MPH

Professor & Director

Dr. Rebecca Katz is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University. She is jointly appointed in the School of Foreign Service. Her research is focused on global health security, public health preparedness and health diplomacy. She also teaches courses on global health diplomacy, global health security, and emerging infectious diseases.

Claire J. Standley, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Dr. Standley’s research focuses on the analysis of health systems strengthening and international capacity building for public health, with an emphasis on prevention and control of infectious diseases in both humans and animals, as well as public health emergency preparedness and response.

Adjunct Faculty

Mike Bray, M.D., MPH

Mike Bray, MD, MPH, is the editor-in-chief of the journal Antiviral Research. His career in medicine began with two years as an Army medic in Vietnam, after which he completed premedical studies at the University of Oregon and attended Dartmouth Medical School. He then trained in pathology and worked for several years as a forensic pathologist in Washington, DC. After obtaining an MPH degree from Johns Hopkins, he began research at the National Institutes of Health, in a lab attempting to develop vaccines against dengue virus. In 1995, he transferred to USAMRIID at Fort Detrick, and spent eight years working in the BSL-4 containment laboratory, principally evaluating antivirals and vaccines against Ebola virus. He was also part of the team that tested antivirals against variola virus at the CDC in Atlanta. In 2002, Dr. Bray returned to NIH as a medical officer in NIAID, in a position that allowed time for writing, organization of workshops and teaching. He is author or co-author of some 140 research papers, review articles, and book chapters. He began lecturing in the Georgetown Masters program in 2004. Since retiring from NIH in 2016, he continues with teaching, writing, and his editorial position.

W. Seth Carus, Ph.D.

Dr. Carus is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of National Security Policy at the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction at the National Defense University. He was on NDU’s faculty from 1997 through 2017, serving from 2003 to 2013 as the Center’s Deputy Director. From 2001 to 2003, Dr. Carus was detailed to the Office of the Vice President at the White House, where he was the Senior Advisor to the Vice President for Biodefense. Before joining NDU, Dr. Carus worked at the Center for Naval Analyses (1994 to 1997), the Policy Planning staff in the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense (1991 to 1994), and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Dr. Carus’ work has focused primarily on issues related to biological and chemical warfare. His current research focuses on the history of chemical and biological warfare. He is author of A Short History of Biological Warfare: From Pre-History to the 21st Century (2017), “The History of Biological Warfare: What We Know and What We Don’t” in Health Security (2015), and Defining “Weapons of Mass Destruction”, Revised and Updated (2012), as well as the working paper Bioterrorism and Biocrimes: The Illicit Use of Biological Agents Since 1900 (2001). He is the co-author of The Future of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Their Nature and Role in 2030 (2014).

Dr. Carus has a Ph.D. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University.

Christopher Duvall, MBA, M.A.

Mr. Chris Duvall is a Senior Director within The Chertoff Group’s Security Risk Management Practice Area, with a focus on cybersecurity. Founded in 2009 by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, The Chertoff Group is a global risk advisory firm comprised of individuals from the highest levels of government and industry. The firm has spent the past decade helping global organizations assess, mitigate, and monitor dynamic risk.

Prior to joining The Chertoff Group, Chris spent three years as a Federal employee, and ten years as a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, supporting public-private sector risk management and mitigation projects for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Prior to his time with DHS and Booz Allen, Chris was the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs Bureau at the U.S. Department of State during the tragedy of September 11, 2001 and supporting the Operation Enduring Freedom campaign.

Mr. Duvall holds an MBA from the University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business, an M.A. from American University’s School of International Service, and a B.A. from Dickinson College in Psychology. He also maintains security-related certifications such as being a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), a Certified Ethical Hacker (CeH), and holds a Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK).

Colin Eckman

Colin Eckman is a twenty-year veteran of the U.S. Government’s counterproliferation community working chemical warfare issues. Over the course of his career, he provided advice and support to a wide range of U.S. policy and military counterproliferation activities involving chemical warfare, including events surrounding use of chemical agents in assassination attempts in the UK and Malaysia; terrorist use of chemical weapons in Iraq; and the Syrian regime’s series of attacks using chemical agents and toxic chemicals. He currently serves in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as the Chemical Warfare Issue Manager, developing strategies to improve intelligence capabilities aimed at reducing the threat from chemical weapons.

Mr. Eckman received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University, and lives with his wife and four children in Woodbridge, Virginia.

Jean-Paul Gonzalez, M.D., Ph.D.

Jean-Paul Gonzalez, M.D., Ph.D., uses his expertise and leadership in training and teaching to direct multidisciplinary and multicultural research teams in many countries. His research projects are in the field of life sciences and medicine and focus on understanding the emergence of diverse and complex pathologies. He also works on biosafety, biosecurity and biosurveillance systems, epidemic preparedness and response (therapy and vaccine).

Julie E. Fischer, Ph.D.

Dr. Julie E. Fischer is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Georgetown University Medical Center. Dr. Julie Fischer is the Senior Technical Advisor for Global Health at CRDF Global. Dr. Fischer brings over 20 years of global health experience in infectious disease research, laboratory systems strengthening, and public health preparedness. Prior to joining CRDF Global, Dr. Fischer was an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the Director of the Elizabeth R. Griffin Program at Georgetown University. She led a multidisciplinary team to promote evidence-based biosafety and biosecurity practices, and to help partner nations strengthen their capacities to detect and characterize disease threats rapidly, reliably, accurately, and safely. Before she joined Georgetown, Dr. Fischer held leadership positions at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health and the Global Health Security Program at the Stimson Center.

Her international experience includes serving as a microbiologist supporting a collaborative partnership between the US CDC and the Thai Ministry of Public Health aimed at strengthening Thailand’s ability to detect and respond to emerging infections. From 2019-2020, Dr. Fischer served as the Chair of the Global Health Security Agenda Consortium, a voluntary alliance of non-governmental institutions committed to strengthening global capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to biological events. Dr. Fischer received a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from Vanderbilt University and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Washington and the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, reports, and training programs throughout her career.

Monte Hawkins, Ph.D.

Monte Hawkins currently serves as the first Director of the National Vetting Center (NVC). President Trump tasked the establishment of the NVC on February 6th, 2018 when he signed National Security Presidential Memorandum Nine (NSPM-9).

Prior to this position, Monte served as the Senior Director for the Border and Transportation Security Directorate in the National Security Council (NSC) for both the Obama and Trump administrations where he coordinated policy development in areas such as aviation and maritime security, immigration, screening and watchlisting, biometrics, and information sharing. He previously served in other roles at the NSC including as the Director for Law Enforcement Policy in the Bush administration in 2008 and the Director for Identity Management and Biometrics Policy in the Obama administration from 2009-2011. Monte has also served in various positions at the National Counterterrorism Center, CIA’s Counterterrorism Mission Center, FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, and the U.S. Secret Service. Monte is currently a member of the adjunct faculty at Georgetown University. He received his B.A. in Sociology from the University of Tulsa and his M.A. in Criminology/Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland-College Park.

Monte Hawkins has co-taught MICB 525 since 2014.

John Jacocks, M.D., MTM&H (Col. retired)

Dr. John Jacocks (COL, ret) is currently the Medical Director at Atlas Research in Washington, DC. Prior to this position, he served as Senior Medical Officer for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Fort Belvoir, VA. He is also an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University. Dr. John Jacocks, MD, MTM&H, specialized in family practice/aviation/occupational medicine in some of the most demanding units in the Department of Defense. He served as a corporate level medical executive for Defense Threat Reduction Agency and is experienced with national-level special mission units and the intelligence community. John taught, wrote, treated, and consulted on medical aspects regarding weapons of mass destruction, including the national response. Dr. Jacocks served as assistant head of the emergency department of 1000 bed general hospital in Desert Shield/Storm and deployed throughout Central/South America and Southwest Asia with the Special Forces. John has kept his focus on taking care of people and expanded skills by becoming involved with tropical medicine /infectious diseases, research and testing/evaluation. He also instructs for LSU’s Academy of Counter-Terrorist Education.

He received his BS in engineering from the US Military Academy at West Point, his MD from Tulane University and his MTM&H from the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences.

Lisa M. Jaeger, J.D.

Lisa Jaeger is Senior Counsel at Bracewell, LLP, where she focuses on environmental and natural resources law and policy. She represents clients before regulatory agencies, in court and before Congress, working with them to resolve problems arising under laws that regulate the use of air, water, and land resources in order to protect human health and the environment.

Catalina Kovats, Ph.D.

Radiation Safety Officer, Georgetown University Microbiology and Immunology Environmental Health and Safety.

Joshua Kurjan

Mr. Kurjan brings to Georgetown University a unique blend of applied professional expertise preventing and mitigating intended acts of violence using biological materials or impacting the bioeconomy. This expertise is drawn from experience as a designated marksman with an Israeli Defense Forces infantry unit and on contract to the United States Government in Afghanistan, extensive corporate executive protection work, and provision of international security, nonproliferation, and biological security subject matter expertise and analysis for U.S. government clients. Mr. Kurjan strives to impart upon his students a threat-centric approach to securing biological materials, information, infrastructure, and industry from bad actors with intent and ability to cause harm, with a focus on identifying, assessing, and managing behavioral threats. Mr. Kurjan is an active member of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP), American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) International, and the American Biological Safety Association (ABSA) where he served as a member of Biosecurity Credential Task Force 2.0 efforts. Mr. Kurjan received his B.A. in Sociology from Western Maryland College (now McDaniel) in 2001.

Biosafety Officer, USDA-ARS Department of Agriculture.

Colm S. O’hUigin, Ph.D.

Dr. O’hUigin heads the Microbiome and Genetic Core Facility at the nation’s leading biomedical institution. His training in both quantitative and molecular genetics was at the Genetics Dept. of Trinity College, Dublin. He learnt the techniques of molecular evolutionary analysis as a postdoctoral fellow with Wen-Hsiung Li at the Center for Population and Demographic Genetics in Houston Texas. As an EMBO fellow, he worked at the Max-Planck Institute in Tuebingen, Germany with Jan Klein where later he headed a group working on the origins and genetic characteristics of the major histocompatability complex, on organogenesis and on speciation. At Georgetown, he teaches two courses: “Immunogenetics in Health” (fall) and “Immunogenetics: Evolution and Human Health” (spring).

Hank Parker, Ph.D.

Biodefense Specialist and writer, Georgetown University…Dr. Henry S. (“Hank”) Parker, PhD, is an adjunct associate professor who, since 2009, has taught a course on agroterrorism and food defense in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. He is also a writer and lecturer on a variety of scientific and natural history topics, with a goal of encouraging non-scientists to better appreciate and understand science. His debut novel, CONTAINMENT (a bioterror thriller), was published by Simon & Schuster (Touchstone imprint) in January 2017.

Hank holds a Ph.D. in biological oceanography and was formerly a research manager and Acting Director of Homeland Security for the Agricultural Research Service of USDA; a university professor of marine sciences; a U.S. Naval officer and deep-sea salvage diver; a seaweed farmer in the southern Philippines; and co-leader of an expedition that discovered and recovered remains of a 17th century Spanish Manila galleon. He lives in Vermont with his wife, Sue.

Neal Pollard, J.D.

Neal A. Pollard, JD, is Chief Information Security Officer for UBS AG, where he serves as the global head of cyber and information security for the world’s largest private bank.  He is also Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, Columbia University, and Fordham Law School. Prior to his current position, he was a partner at Ernst & Young in New York City, leading their cyber threat management services primarily for financial institutions in New York City.  He also served as a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Prior to his consulting career, he was a senior intelligence officer in the U.S. counterterrorism community, serving operational and managerial assignments focused on the nuclear and biological terrorist target for the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Counterterrorism Center, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.  He is a board director of the Cyber Conflict Studies Association, non-resident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council, and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he was an International Affairs Fellow.  He was also Vice President of Hicks & Associates, and Board Director and General Counsel of the Terrorism Research Center, a corporation he founded in 1996.  He holds a B.Sc. in mathematics from Oklahoma University, an M.Litt. from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and a J.D. from Georgetown University. He is a member of the Virginia State Bar.

Paula Scalingi, Ph.D.

Dr. Scalingi has 27 years of experience in government, the private and non-profit sectors, and academia as an expert, manager, and educator in all-hazards regional and community security and resilience with focus on infrastructure interdependencies-associated risk and capacity- building. For more than two decades she has worked with thousands of private and public sector stakeholders across the U.S. and internationally to establish public-private partnerships, conduct exercises and workshops, produce collaborative action strategies, and develop tools and resources. She currently serves as Executive Director of the Institute for Innovating Security and Resilience (12SR), a public benefit organization that advances actions to address challenges posed by technological, climate, and societal change that can adversely impact interdependent critical infrastructures and the health and economic viability of the communities they serve. She also is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Georgetown University teaching community resilience.

Dr. Scalingi’s areas of focus include disaster recovery, economic resilience, healthcare delivery systems resilience, community health resilience with special focus on at-risk individuals, critical lifelines (energy, water/waste-water and transportation) resilience, dam and levee resilience, supply chains and the manufacturing sector; infrastructure interdependencies, information- sharing and situational awareness, extreme weather event resilience, regional cyber resilience and regional risk assessment and mitigation.  An area of special focus in the last several years has been on health and safety, economic, environmental, and societal impacts of catastrophic wildfires and developing a comprehensive model multi-community wildfire resilience action strategy.  Other areas of focus have included development of a model approach for cross-sector stakeholder-managed risk assessment and reduction initiatives centering on emerging “Smart” Cities and extreme weather events. Among her larger projects have been leading a team of utilities, local agencies, and research institutions to develop a U.S. DHS-sponsored Regional Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience (RCISR) Toolbox of capabilities for regional risk management and cross-sector information sharing; a community health resilience guide and online action planning toolset for the U.S DHS Office of Health Affairs; and a multi-year Regional Health Resilience Initiative for the California Department of Public Health to build local community capabilities to address largescale toxic air industrial and large-scale wildfire emissions. A foundational element of the latter initiative was the establishment of a San Francisco Bay Area Community Health Resilience Forum that brought together “whole community” stakeholders across the region to share views and identify gaps and solutions on pressing disaster health-related challenges. She partnered with UC Berkeley for a California Energy Commission project to examine vulnerabilities of California’s transportation fuel sector to extreme wildfire and flood events.

Previously, Dr. Scalingi for eight years was Executive Director of the Bay Area Center for Regional Disaster Resilience, a non-profit she founded with the mission of empowering and enabling cross-sector and discipline collaborative planning and action to improve all-hazards disaster resilience, conducting multi-stakeholder exercises and other educational events, and managing projects to develop community and regional resilience capacities. From 2006 to 2011 she served as Director of the Center for Regional Disaster Resilience for the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER), a consortium of 10 U.S. states and Canadian provinces and territories. Her work focused on raising cross-sector awareness of interdependencies-related all- hazards impacts and resilience needs and developing risk reduction plans. Among her major activities was project lead for PNWER in an innovative Dams Sector Exercise Series (DSES) program created in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to develop an integrated regional resilience strategy for major flood events. The DSES 2009 and 2010 projects focused on two regions in Washington State, the Tri-Cities area/broader Columbia River basin and the Howard Hanson Dam/Green River Valley. Dr. Scalingi’s Federal Government experience includes: Director, U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Director of the Decision and Information Sciences Division at Argonne National Laboratory and of ANL’s Infrastructure Assurance Center, where she was technical liaison to the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, overseeing studies on water supply, emergency services, electric power, oil and gas; legal/regulatory issues, and R&D strategy. She also served in the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency on the Strategic Arms Control Treaty Delegation and as Director of Public Information; on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Dr. Scalingi has served on the Boards of Directors for national IT and defense associations, local disaster assistance non-profits, and for The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP), a national association representing the engineering disciplines.  She developed the 2006 and 2011 versions of TISP’s Regional Disaster Resilience Guide, receiving the association’s 2010 and 2013 Volunteer of the Year Awards, the latter for providing expert advice to assist in the development of the 2013 National Infrastructure Protection Plan.  She currently serves as chair for the Regional Consortium Coordinating Council (RC3), a key element of the national-level Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council (CIPAC), and as lead for the CIPAC’s Resilience Investment Planning and Development Working Group (RIPDWG) Futures Task Group.  She also is a member of California’s Southern Region Mutual Aid Regional Advisory Committee among other local, regional, and national resilience and security collaborative groups.  She has authored numerous articles, guides, and other publications on infrastructure security and resilience issues, most recently Securing Smart Cities in an Era of Change in Security Technology Executive (July/August, 2019) and Creating Wildfire Resilient Communities in The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies (Nov. 2020).

Matt Sharkey, Ph.D.

Dr. Matt Sharkey is an adjunct faculty member and teaches Policy & Pandemic Management and Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Biodefense. He received a BS in Molecular Biology and a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, both from Purdue University. His published works include eight peer- reviewed research and review articles and a U.S. patent. For more than nine years he was either a researcher or biosafety officer in BSL-3 high-containment laboratories, including two years in a SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV laboratory and two years supporting the Laboratory Response Network. He also spent ten years supporting the DoD by assessing international dual-use research of concern networks and evaluating the safety and security of high-containment laboratories in the developing world. He has received fellowships for postdoctoral work from Ionis Pharmaceutical and the National Research Council, the latter of which supported his work at the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID).

Jeff Stiefel, Ph.D.

Senior Health Threats Advisor, Office of Health Affairs, DHS.

David Stiefel, Ph.D.

David Stiefel is concurrently a National Security Policy Analyst with the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Office of Homeland Security (OHS) and a graduate student at the University of Virginia in the doctoral program for Foreign Affairs; majoring in International Relations. David earned his BS in Geology & Environmental Sciences, Media Arts & Design, and Jazz Studies from James Madison University (’07). David then worked as an Environmental Consultant for two years in Charlottesville, VA. David left that job to own and tour full time in a band, which he did for the next five years. After charting on Billboard with his band, David pursued a MS from Georgetown University in Biohazardous Threat Agents and Emerging Infections Disease (’15). Upon graduation, David began working in Lorton, VA as a Defense Contractor for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) – focusing on Counter- Weapons of Mass Destruction Systems/Technology and supporting the Autonomy Community of Interest. While at DTRA, David became a finalist for the Presidential Management Fellowship. David began working for USDA as a Presidential Management Fellow, first at the Natural Resources Conservation Service and subsequently for the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Coordination. With USDA, David is currently a National Security Policy Analyst with a portfolio including Agroterrorism, Bio-defense/security, Critical Infrastructure, Global Health, BWC, etc. For his PhD, David is interested in the intersection of food and security; specifically, how food can be used (including during peace time) as coercive power.

Ryung Suh, M.D.

Board-certified in occupational medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine (FACPM) and the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (FACOEM) Department of Health Systems Administration.

Benn Tannenbaum, Ph.D.

Adjunct Associate Professor, Georgetown University
Sandia Inc.

Taylor Winkleman-Cagle, DVM, MPH

Dr. Winkleman-Cagle is an adjunct in the Department of Microbiology. She is a clinically trained veterinarian and policy analyst with eight years of experience with the Global Health Security Agenda. She completed a AAAS congressional fellowship in the office of Senator Edward J. Markey in 2016-2017, focusing on global health, foreign relations, military and veterans affairs, human rights, wildlife trafficking, and space policy. Prior to her fellowship year, she completed research with Gryphon Scientific, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the mEpiLab at Massey University in New Zealand. She is a founding member and the immediate past Coordinator of the Next Generation Global Health Security Network. In 2021, she completed a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship with the WHO. She currently works as a consultant for the WHO, focusing on Biorisk Mitigation. Dr. Winkleman teaches Survey of International Policy, Shaping National Science Policy, and is the course director for Public Policy for Scientists and co-course director for the Capstone class. She co-teaches Science & Technology in Global Health and Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases.

Emeritus Faculty

Joseph A. Bellanti, M.D.

Professor Emeritus

Dr. Joseph A. Bellanti is Director of the International Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Immunology at Georgetown University Medical Center and Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology-Immunology, (Emeritus) at Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC.

Richard Calderone, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

In 2022, Dr. Richard Calderone retired from the Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Director of the MS Degree Program in Biomedical Science Policy & Advocacy at The Georgetown University Medical Center. He is an internationally recognized leader in research on the human pathogen Candida albicans, the pathogenesis of invasive candidiasis, and the identification of antifungal drug targets. The research of his lab team is focused primarily on understanding gene functions related to pathogenesis, including signal transduction proteins related to cell wall synthesis, and mitochondrial energetics. Other lab research focuses upon the identification of fungal-specific antifungal drug targets. Two proteins that fulfill this requirement are mitochondrial electron transport complex I (ETC1) subunits. Their fungal gene-specificity is associated with fungal-specific functions, such as cell wall mannan polysaccharide synthesis, virulence, and immunological activity.

Michael F. Cole, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

Dr. Cole is a Professor Emeritus at the Department of Microbiology & Immunology.

William A. Fonzi, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

“Microbial pathogens confront diverse environments within the human host. Rapid adaptation to the physiochemical, nutritional, and other variables within these environments is paramount to the pathogen’s ability to survive and cause disease. Defining the nature of these adaptations and understanding how they contribute to virulence of the pathogen will suggest new targets for intervention and prevention of infections.”

John L. Gerin

Professor Emeritus

Herbert B. Herscowitz, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

“Over the past 35 years, I have carried out research in the area of cellular and molecular immunology which was focused on defining the immunological functions of the alveolar macrophage in both animal and human model systems. During this period I supervised the dissertation research of 10 pre-doctoral students and trained nine postdoctoral Fellows in my laboratory.”

R. Pad Padmanabhan, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

Dengue viruses (types 1-4), members of Flaviviridae, are transmitted by mosquito vectors, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. They are recognized as the causative agents of diseases such as dengue fever, a simple self-limiting disease, to more severe forms, dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome, affecting ~50-100 million people annually worldwide with thousands of fatalities. Over 40% of the world population is at risk for dengue viral infections and currently there is no effective vaccine or antiviral drug available. Moreover, infections caused by another member of the mosquito-borne Flaviviridae, West Nile virus, previously unknown in the U.S., have caused several thousand infections in birds and humans since the 1999 epidemic in New York City. My laboratory has been involved in (1) understanding the role of cis-acting RNA elements and conserved motifs in viral nonstructural (NS) proteins, involved in translation and replication of the viral genome, and (2) identification of small molecule inhibitors of the viral protease, RNA helicase, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase.