EVENTS

In 2011, he was invited to join the White House Hispanic Policy Group and help educate and raise awareness for the Affordable Care Act. Dr. Shapiro is also a recent recipient of the Othli Award, an honor presented by the Consul of Mexico to recognize individuals working to improve the lives of Mexican nationals living in the United States and abroad. Prior to joining AltaMed, Dr. Shapiro held numerous health and leadership roles that focused on traditionally underserved communities.

She has co-authored her memoir, The Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug (https://theperfectpredator.com/), which was published in 2019. It discusses how she, her colleagues at UC San Diego and a global village of phage researchers sought bacteriophage therapy to save her husband from a life-threatening multidrug resistant bacterial infection. For her efforts to revitalize phage therapy in North America, she was named as one of TIME’s 50 Most Influential People in Health Care in 2018.

She also develops and direct priority objectives to support program-wide epidemiological and data support needs for routine surveillance and monitoring of emerging infectious disease outbreaks. She supervises and leads team of Supervising Epidemiologists, Epidemiologists, and Epidemiology Analysts responsible for centralized data processing, reporting and analytic activities for over 60 reportable communicable diseases per state and local requirements, including annual morbidity reporting efforts summarizing LAC’s communicable disease trends (counts and rates) by year.

Dr. Stafford also leads a perinatal syphilis program at UT Physicians, the clinical practice of McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, where she has dedicated a clinic day for patients with syphilis.

Dr. Weaver currently holds the John Sealy Distinguished University Chair in Human Infections and Immunity. He directs three major NIH- and CDC-funded center grants at UTMB: The Western Gulf Center of Excellence for in Vector-borne Diseases, the West African Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, and the World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses.

Dr. Weaver is an internationally recognized virologist and mosquito biologist with more than 350 publications in prestigious scientific journals, many invited presentations at international meetings, and international leadership roles. He has received many awards from and holds leadership positions in a number of national and international scientific societies and professional organizations, including the Walter Reed Medal from the American Society of Tropical medicine and Hygiene for career research contributions, and the Robert Gallo Award for Scientific Excellence from the Global Virus Network. Dr. Weaver is also a fellow of the American Academy of Inventors in recognition of his contributions to vaccine development, and a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He holds nine patents for vaccine and diagnostics development for viral diseases.

Dr. Weaver’s research focuses on the ecology, evolution, epidemiology and pathogenesis of mosquito-borne viral diseases, arbovirus‐mosquito vector interactions, and vaccine development for arboviral disease prevention. Current projects include emergence mechanisms, pathogenesis and vector transmission of Zika and chikungunya viruses. Recently, his group has also focused on understanding the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and evaluation of COVID vaccines. Dr. Weaver leads two NIH-funded centers: the  World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses and the West African Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Weaver’s stature in the scientific community is also indicated by his service on many national and international committees and study sections, as well as his many editorial appointments including as editor for PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLoS Pathogens, the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the Archives of Virology.

Dr. Weaver teaches and mentors young scientists extensively, and was named the Leon Bromberg Professor of Excellence in Teaching. He earned his BS degree from the College of William and Mary in 1979, his MS degree in entomology from Cornell University in 1982, and his PhD degree in virology from the University of California, San Diego in 1993. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University School of Medicine, he joined the UTMB faculty in 1994.

Dr. Baezconde-Garbanati is a tenured professor in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. She is also a member of the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center where she is co-Director and Project Leader of the Patient Education and Community Outreach Center. Dr. Baezconde-Garbanati has a solid reputation as a widely recognized national and international community engaged scholar in the areas of culture and community health, with an emphasis on Hispanic/Latino health. Dr. Sheila Murphy is trained in social psychology at the University of Michigan. She specializes in identifying the individual, interpersonal, community, and ethnic and cultural factors that shape people’s knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Understanding cultural diversity and tailoring messages to diverse audiences has been a major theme of her research both domestically and internationally (including India, Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria, El Salvador, Panama, Thailand, and Indonesia).

Dr. Jha is a lead investigator of the Million Death Study in India, which quantifies the causes of premature mortality in over 23 million people from 1997-2023, including the contribution of key risk factors such as tobacco and alcohol. Professor Jha is also widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in global tobacco control. He is the author of several influential publications on tobacco control, including two that helped enable a global treaty on tobacco control, now signed by over 180 countries. 

Dr. Jha is also a former Rhodes Scholar, an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, and the recipient of many awards. Jha founded and directs the Centre for Global Health Research at Unity Health Toronto.  

His IDEAS Seminar will be followed by departmental Grand Rounds where Dr. Jha will present on Death and Taxes: A Global and U.S. Perspective on the Hazards of Smoking, the Benefits of Tobacco Taxation, and the Influence of Education (flyer attached).

Pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine & Public Health in the Divisions of Infectious Diseases & Global Pediatrics. The seminar would be moderated by Dr. Andrea Kim, Director of Vaccine Preventable Disease Control Program at the LA County Department of Public Health.

Dr. Weaver currently holds the John Sealy Distinguished University Chair in Human Infections and Immunity. He directs three major NIH- and CDC-funded center grants at UTMB: The Western Gulf Center of Excellence for in Vector-borne Diseases, the West African Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, and the World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses.

Dr. Weaver is an internationally recognized virologist and mosquito biologist with more than 350 publications in prestigious scientific journals, many invited presentations at international meetings, and international leadership roles. He has received many awards from and holds leadership positions in a number of national and international scientific societies and professional organizations, including the Walter Reed Medal from the American Society of Tropical medicine and Hygiene for career research contributions, and the Robert Gallo Award for Scientific Excellence from the Global Virus Network. Dr. Weaver is also a fellow of the American Academy of Inventors in recognition of his contributions to vaccine development, and a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He holds nine patents for vaccine and diagnostics development for viral diseases.

Dr. Weaver’s research focuses on the ecology, evolution, epidemiology and pathogenesis of mosquito-borne viral diseases, arbovirus‐mosquito vector interactions, and vaccine development for arboviral disease prevention. Current projects include emergence mechanisms, pathogenesis and vector transmission of Zika and chikungunya viruses. Recently, his group has also focused on understanding the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and evaluation of COVID vaccines. Dr. Weaver leads two NIH-funded centers: the  World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses and the West African Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Weaver’s stature in the scientific community is also indicated by his service on many national and international committees and study sections, as well as his many editorial appointments including as editor for PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLoS Pathogens, the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the Archives of Virology.

Dr. Weaver teaches and mentors young scientists extensively, and was named the Leon Bromberg Professor of Excellence in Teaching. He earned his BS degree from the College of William and Mary in 1979, his MS degree in entomology from Cornell University in 1982, and his PhD degree in virology from the University of California, San Diego in 1993. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University School of Medicine, he joined the UTMB faculty in 1994.