The IN-TRAC External Advisory Board is a group of distinguished experts from across academia, industry, and public health who provide strategic guidance and insight to support the program’s mission. Board members bring diverse perspectives and deep experience in tuberculosis (TB) research, global health, and scientific collaboration.
The Advisory Board plays a key role in:
- informing program direction and priorities
- strengthening scientific and training initiatives
- identifying opportunities for growth, innovation, and partnership
Through their guidance, the External Advisory Board helps ensure that IN-TRAC remains responsive to the evolving needs of the TB research community and continues to advance impactful, high-quality training and collaboration.
Andrea Cooper, Ph.D.
Andrea Cooper, Ph.D. is a professor at University of Leicester in the Department of Respiratory Sciences
She received her undergraduate degree from University College London and her Doctoral degree from The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine UK where she investigated the interaction between macrophages and protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania.
Moving to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda Maryland USA she expanded her investigation of leishmaniasis to include the T cell response of patients suffering from cutaneous mucocutaneous and visceral forms of this disease.
She then moved to the Mycobacterial Research Labs at Colorado State University and began studying the protective immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Prior to her move to the University of Leicester, she was at the Trudeau Institute Inc. for 12 years where she held the E.L. Trudeau Chair which allowed me to study the cellular immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Dr. Jeffrey Cirillo, Ph.D.
Jeff Cirillo, Ph.D., is a Regents’ Professor, Department of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology, Interim Department Head, Department of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology, Director of the Center for Airborne Pathogen Research and Imaging (CAPRI) at Texas A&M University
Jeffrey D. Cirillo, PhD, is a Regents’ professor in the Department of Microbial and Molecular Pathogenesis at the Texas A&M College of Medicine. Dr. Cirillo’s research interests are in the pathogenesis of bacterial lung infections including tuberculosis, Legionnaires’ disease and other pneumonia agents, and he has been a tuberculosis researcher for more than 30 years. His team utilizes both animal and molecular models to understand airborne pathogens and to develop novel prevention, treatment and diagnostic strategies to improve global health.
Dr. Cirillo leads the Center for Airborne Pathogens Research and Tuberculosis Image Resources (CAPRI) formed in 2007 and the Small Animal Model Vaccines and Pathogenesis (SAMVAP) group. He has been awarded over $5 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program and currently has over $1 million from NIH, supporting his work on real-time optical imaging and detection of tuberculosis, and is currently involved in numerous collaborative projects.
Christopher Sassetti, PhD
Chris Sassetti, PH.D. is a Professor at UMass Chan medical school in the microbiology and physiological systems and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
His lab has developed a variety of new methodologies, which take advantage of both classical genetic tools and genome sequence information. Using these methods, they have identified hundreds of mycobacterial genes that are specifically required for the bacterium to survive under a variety of conditions including acute and chronic infection models. The Lab’s work is focused on the characterizing the functional roles played by these virulence systems.
He is also the 2023 Texas TB symposium keynote speaker
Shu-Hua Wang, M.D.
Shu-Hua Wang, MD, is a professor of internal medicine and medical director Ben Franklin TB Program, Columbus Public Health at The Ohio State University college of medicine
Dr. Wang’s clinical interests include the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) and its complications and multidrug resistant pathogens such as methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
She has research interest in rapid TB diagnostic tests and molecular epidemiology of MRSA. She has published in both areas of TB and MRSA. She is currently involved in several international Global One Health and TB projects Ethiopia, China and Guatemala and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) project in Ethiopia.
Dr. Wang is the Medical Director of the Ben Franklin Tuberculosis Control Program, which reports and investigates all tuberculosis cases for Franklin County, Ohio. Currently, she is also the Ohio Department of Health State Medical TB Consultant as well as Medical TB Consultant for the CDC Regional Training and Medical Consultation Center.
https://medicine.osu.edu/find-faculty/clinical/pharmacy/shu-hua-wang
Elizabeth Reyes
Community Member
Elizabeth is a TB survivor after being diagnosed in late 2020. She received treatment for TB at the Texas Center for Infectious Disease in San Antonio for about a year. She is now an advocate for TB and serves as the IN-TRAC EAB community member
Elizabeth Reyes is a public health advocate and community leader who has been actively involved in tuberculosis (TB) awareness and support. She is a founding member of “We are TB Somos TB”, a volunteer-driven organization that hosts online treatment support meetings