Nina Russell

Dr. Nina Russell leads two programs at the foundation, HIV Prevention and Tuberculosis, and supports SARS-CoV-2 vaccine efforts in collaboration with other teams in the Global Health Division.

Nina joined the foundation in 2005 and played a critical role in the design and creation of the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD), a foundation funding model that established a highly collaborative community of leading HIV scientists with a diverse portfolio of early- to late-stage active and passive immunization projects. In her current role, she oversees all of the foundation’s TB and HIV prevention initiatives, including BCG revaccination to prevent TB infection in adolescents in South Africa, late-stage development of the M72 vaccine to prevent TB disease, and long-acting drug interventions for HIV prevention. She also oversees the Collaboration for TB Vaccine Discovery (CTVD) and funding for new product development support, animal model improvements, and innovative novel vaccine concepts.

Before joining the foundation, Nina worked at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where she managed a pipeline of Phase I and Phase II HIV vaccine clinical trials for the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, working in close collaboration with academic, biotech, and industry partners to advance novel vaccine candidates into clinical testing.

Nina completed a residency in internal medicine at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and a clinical and research fellowship in infectious diseases at the Montefiore Medical Center – Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She received her M.D. from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and a B.A. from Yale University.