The Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin) today announced that effective October 17, 2014, Dr. Jon Andrus will join Sabin as Executive Vice President and Director of Vaccine Advocacy and Education. In this role, he will leverage more than three decades of experience as a global health leader with a well-documented record for fostering collaboration among national governments and partners to expand access to vaccines for the world’s poorest people.
“Dr. Andrus has an exceptionally diverse background in advocating universal immunization coverage and strengthened healthcare systems worldwide,” said Ambassador Michael W. Marine, CEO of Sabin. “Having been on the frontlines of groundbreaking public health efforts, he possesses the technical expertise and public policy know-how to achieve sustainable, life-saving results. His leadership and insights will play an important role in our efforts to expand upon the vaccine advocacy work pioneered by our late colleague, Dr. Ciro de Quadros.”
Since 2009, Dr. Andrus has served as Deputy Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and, prior to that, was PAHO’s Lead Technical Advisor and Chief of the Immunization Unit, Family and Community Health.
Before his tenure at PAHO, Dr. Andrus held senior positions at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as Head, Vaccinology and Immunization Program at the Institute for Global Health at the Universities of California at San Francisco and Berkeley, and as Director of the Global Health MPH Program at The George Washington University (GWU). Dr. Andrus is a Professor in the Department of Global Health at GWU. He also holds adjunct faculty appointments at the University of California, San Francisco and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“I share Sabin’s fundamental belief that good health is a basic human right that must be delivered through country ownership, evidence-based decision-making and capacity building,” said Dr. Andrus. “Sabin’s advocacy to help countries increase their ability to fund and carry out their own immunization programs has led to impressive gains. I look forward to continuing this progress and working with the Sabin team and development partners to overcome the many remaining challenges to ensure that all children are protected from disease.”
Dr. Andrus won the U.S. Public Health Service’s highest award, Distinguished Service Medal, for his leadership on polio eradication in Southeast Asia. He has also received numerous awards for his leadership on polio eradication, measles and rubella elimination, and the control of other vaccine-preventable diseases.
A medical doctor, in 1985 Dr. Andrus launched his career in global health by volunteering in the Peace Corps as a District Medical Officer in Malawi. Prior to that, as a member of the National Health Service Corps, he delivered primary care services in a family health center and rural health clinic in the United States.
He received a Bachelor of Science from Stanford University and a Doctor of Medicine from the University of California, Davis. He completed residencies in family medicine at University of California, San Francisco, and preventive medicine at the CDC.
