Bhadelia Joins White House COVID-19 Response Team
Nahid Bhadelia – Founding Director of BU’s Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases (CEID), Associate Director at BU’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL), and an affiliate faculty at BU’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, has joined the White House COVID-19 Response Team as a senior policy advisor for global COVID response.
The White House team’s founding goal is to create a unified national response to the pandemic. Bhadelia brings a broad global health background to the White House position. She worked in West and East Africa during multiple Ebola virus outbreaks, contributed to pandemic preparedness in Liberia and Uganda, and codirects the BU and University of Liberia Emerging and Epidemic Virus Research Program, which is funded by the Fogarty International Center. She’s also a member of the World Health Organization’s Technical Advisory Group for Universal Health and Preparedness Review, which is working to improve the metrics used to measure pandemic preparedness.
Since founding CEID in 2021, Bhadelia has grown the Center into a hub for research and actionable policies. The center has contributed to congressional hearings, advised legislative offices, prepared policy briefs, and provided input on pandemic preparedness bills. Bhadelia is taking a sabbatical for the duration of the full-time position, during which David Hamer, a BU School of Public Health professor of global health, will serve as interim head of CEID.
The full story of Bhadelia’s appointment can be read on The Brink‘s website.
Dr. Bhadelia is a board-certified infectious diseases physician and an internationally recognized leader in highly communicable and emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) with clinical, field, academic, and policy experience in pandemic preparedness. In addition to her role at CEID, she is the associate director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL), a state-of-the-art maximum containment research facility at BU. Learn more about Bhadelia on her faculty profile.