Michelle McMurry-Heath MD, PhD is a physician and scientist with nearly a decade’s experience bridging the gap between scientists and policymakers. After studying biochemistry at Harvard, Dr. McMurry went on to become the first African-American to receive both MD and PhD degrees from Duke University. She trained in pediatrics and molecular immunology. Her policy work has focused on the intersection of biomedical research funding policies and health disparities and global health inequities. She is the founding director of the Health, Biomedical Science, and Society Initiative at the Aspen Institute and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Policy at George Washington University. She has been a Macarthur Global Health Fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations and a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at the University of California. From 2001-2003, she oversaw health and social policy issues for Senator Joseph Lieberman. She also worked to improve diversity in graduate science education in the Office of the Director of the National Science Foundation as an AAAS Science Policy Fellow under Rita Colwell
