Board of Medical Advisors

Franz-Josef Bindert studied law at the University of Mannheim and Heidelberg. Mr. Bindert currently serves at the Federal Ministry of Health of Germany as a Deputy Director General for Infectious Disease Control and Health Protection. He led the initial response to the appearance of the HIV virus and created the first Aids-Campaign in Germany. He is also responsible for the supervision of the Robert Koch Institut in Berlin. Mr. Bindert is a member of the Management Board of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm and of the boards for the Paul Ehrlich Foundation and the Robert Koch Foundation.

After completing undergraduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley, Dr. Francis received his M.D. from Northwestern University, a Doctor of Science in Virology from Harvard, pediatric training at the University of Southern California Medical Center in Los Angeles and infectious disease training at Harvard. While at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he played a significant role in the elimination of smallpox in India, Bangladesh, Sudan and the former Yugoslavia. In addition to working in cholera and Ebola control, he was one of the first scientists to suggest that AIDS was caused by an infectious agent. Dr. Francis became a pioneer researcher to develop an HIV/AIDS vaccine, beginning with his work at Genentech in 1993. In 1995, he co-founded VaxGen where the world’s first HIV/AIDS efficacy trials were completed in the United States, Canada, Holland and Thailand. In 2004, he retired from VaxGen to establish a not-for-profit foundation, Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases, dedicated to developing vaccines for the less developed parts of the world. He is a frequent consultant for WHO.

Dr. Gushulak is currently a consultant focusing on health and global population mobility. Previously he was the Director General of the migration health branch of the Canadian immigration department, the Director of Medical Services for the International Organization for Migration in Geneva and managed the quarantine and travel medicine unit of the Canadian health department. He has been the chair of the Migrant and Refugee Health Interest Group of the International Society for Travel Medicine. He is an Associate Editor, for BMC Health Services Research and is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Travel Medicine.

Dr. D. A. Henderson was Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh and is a Distinguished Scholar at the Center for Biosecurity in Baltimore. He was a Professor and former Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He served as Life Sciences Advisor to President G. H. W. Bush and was the first Director of the newly created Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness in the Department of Health and Human Services. He was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Science, as well as many other awards. He received the Japan Prize and was knighted by the King of Thailand.

Dr. David Heymann is Head of the Center on Global Health Security at Chatham House, London; Chairman of the Board of the Health Protection Agency, UK, and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Previously, he was the World Health Organization's Assistant Director-General for Health Security and Environment and the representative of the Director-General for polio eradication. He has received many honours for services to global public health. He is currently the Editor of the Control of Communicable Diseases Manual, a joint publication of the American Public Health Association and the World Health Organization.

Dr. C. William Keck is Professor and Chair Emeritus of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Northeast Ohio Medical University, and former Director of Public Health for the City of Akron, Ohio. He is a former President of the American Public Health Association, the Council on Education for Public Health, the Ohio Public Health Association, the Association of Ohio Health Commissioners, and the Summit County Medical Society. He currently chairs the Council on Linkages between Academia and Public Health Practice and is Editor in Chief of the journal, MEDICC Review. Dr. Keck is a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine.

Dr. Kimball is a Professor of Epidemiology and Health Services at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, and Director of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Emerging Infections Network and the Fogarty International Scholars program in Health Informatics. She is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine with the School of Medicine and Adjunct Professor at the Jackson School of International Studies. She is an attending physician on staff at Harborview Medical Center. In 2000, she was named as a New Century Scholar for Fulbright and in 2004 she received a Guggenheim Foundation scholar award for her work.