REACH Team

Program Directors

  • Brad Jones, PhD

    Weill Cornell Medicine - New York, NY

    Program Co-Director

    Dr. Jones is a viral immunologist and an Associate Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases with a cross-appointment in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. He received his PhD in Immunology from the University of Toronto before beginning a post-doctoral fellowship at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard in 2012. He currently serves as Principal Investigator of the Research Enterprise to Advance a Cure for HIV (REACH), one of the NIH’s flagship ‘Martin Delaney Collaboratories’. Dr. Jones is on the Steering Committee of the Global Scientific Strategy for an HIV Cure initiative of the International AIDS Society (IAS), and co-Chairs the IAS Advocacy-for-Cure Academy – which focuses on raising awareness on the state of HIV cure research in the global South.

  • Marina Caskey, MD

    Rockefeller University - New York, NY

    Program Co-Director

    Dr. Caskey is a Professor of Clinical Investigation at The Rockefeller University, and a member of Michel Nussenzweig’s Laboratory of Molecular Immunology. Dr. Caskey received her medical degree from the Federal University of Sergipe, in Brazil, and completed specialty training in infectious disease at Weill Cornell Medicine, where she remains an attending physician. Dr. Caskey joined Rockefeller as a clinical scholar in the lab of Ralph Steinman in 2009, and has spent the last decade working on clinical studies of experimental immune-based vaccines and therapies, particularly those for HIV. Since becoming a member of Nussenzweig’s lab in 2012 she has led human trials of broadly neutralizing antibodies as a complement to antiretroviral therapy for HIV.

Program Management

  • Adam Ward, PhD MS

    Weill Cornell Medicine - New York, NY

    Program Manager & Biostatistician

    Adam Ward is the Program Manager and Biostatistician for REACH. In this capacity, he helps to manage day-to-day operations of the Collaboratory and facilitate scientific interactions between its members. He also works on the design and analysis of REACH-related clinical and basic science research studies. Prior to his current role, Adam was a Research Assistant and then a Research Associate in the lab of Brad Jones from 2016-2021. Adam recently completed his PhD in epidemiology from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, and holds a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Sciences and a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Sciences from North Carolina State University.

  • Jessica Salzwedel, MA

    AVAC - New York, NY

    Community Engagement Coordinator

    Jessica is the Community Engagement Coordinator for REACH and Senior Program Manager of Research Engagement at AVAC, where she leads the organization’s HIV cure research program. Jessica focuses on translating complex science into lay language, creating capacity building programs for stakeholders to meaningfully participate throughout the research lifecycle and advocating for increased stakeholder participation throughout research.

  • Adriana Barillas-Batarse, MA

    Rockefeller University - New York, NY

    Program Coordinator

    Adriana Barillas-Batarse is currently the Assistant Director of Finance and Clinical Programs for the Vaccine Center at The Rockefeller University and serves as Program Coordinator for REACH. Adriana grew up in Guatemala, graduated with her BA at the University of Houston, and her MA at the American Graduate School of International Relations and Diplomacy in Paris. Prior to joining Rockefeller, Adriana worked at the US Department of Justice as a Project Manager in the Language Analyst Division and as a Communications Officer for the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation-France.

  • Omarys Herasme, MPH

    Weill Cornell Medicine - New York, NY

    Finance Manager

Executive Committee and RF Leadership

  • Zabrina Brumme, PhD

    Simon Fraser University - Vancouver, Canada

    Executive Committee Member

    RF1 Co-Leader

  • Jessica Prodger, PhD

    University of Western Ontario - London, Canada

    RF1 Co-Leader

  • Guinevere Lee, PhD

    Weill Cornell Medicine - New York, NY

    RF1 Co-Leader

  • Michel Nussenzweig, MD PhD

    Rockefeller University - New York, NY

    Executive Committee Member

    RF2 Co-Leader

  • Paul Bieniasz, PhD

    Rockefeller University - New York, NY

    Executive Committee Member

    RF3 Co-Leader

  • Kiera Clayton, PhD

    University of Massachusetts Medical School - Worcester, MA

    RF3 Co-Leader

  • Douglas Nixon, MD PhD

    Weill Cornell Medicine - New York, NY

    Executive Committee Member

    Mentorship

  • Damalie Nakanjako, MBChB MMED PhD

    Makerere University - Kampala, Uganda

    Executive Committee Member

    Ugandan Site Lead

Co-Investigators

  • Santiago Ávila-Ríos, PhD

    Centro de Investigacion en Enfermedades Infecciosas - Mexico City, Mexico

  • Du-San Baek, PhD

    University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh, PA

  • Alberto Bosque, PhD

    George Washington University - Washington, DC

  • Mark Brockman, PhD

    Simon Fraser University - Vancouver, Canada

  • Tae-Wook Chun, PhD

    National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH) - Bethesda, MD

  • Lillian Cohn, PhD

    Fred Hutch - Seattle, WA

  • Joshua Cyktor, PhD

    University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh, PA

  • Dimiter Dimitrov, PhD ScD

    University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh, PA

  • Teresa Evering, MD

    Weill Cornell Medicine - New York, NY

  • John Frater, FRCP PhD

    University of Oxford - Oxford, England

  • Robert Furler, PhD

    Weill Cornell Medicine - New York, NY

  • Ronald Galiwango, PhD

    Rakai Health Sciences Program - Kalisizo, Uganda

  • Ya-Chi Ho, MD PhD

    Yale University - New Haven, CT

  • Colin Kovacs, MD

    Maple Leaf Medical Clinic - Toronto, Canada

  • Wei Li, PhD

    University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh, PA

  • Rebecca Lynch, PhD

    George Washington University - Washington, DC

  • Bernard Macatangay, MD

    University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh, PA

  • Malcolm Martin, MD

    National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH) - Bethesda, MD

  • John Mellors, MD

    University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh, PA

  • Frauke Muecksch, PhD

    Heidelberg University - Heidelberg, Germany

  • Lishomwa Ndhlovu, MD PhD

    Weill Cornell Medicine - New York, NY

  • Mario Ostrowski, MD

    University of Toronto - Toronto, Canada

  • Art Poon, PhD

    University of Western Ontario - London, Canada

  • Thomas Quinn, MD

    National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH) & Johns Hopkins University - Baltimore, MD

  • Andrew Redd, PhD

    National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH) - Bethesda, MD

  • Steven Reynolds, MD MPH

    National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH) & Johns Hopkins University - Baltimore, MD

  • Melissa Smith, PhD

    University of Louisville - Louisville, Kentucky

  • James Whitney, PhD

    Boston College - Boston, MA

  • Timothy Wilkin, MD

    Weill Cornell Medicine - New York, NY

Industry Partners

  • ImmunityBio

    Jeffrey Safrit, PhD - Senior Director, Infectious Diseases

    Website

NIH Program Management Team

  • Sandra Bridges Gurgo, PhD

    Chief, Targeted Interventions Branch

    NIAID

  • Eric Refsland, PhD

    Program Officer, Basic Sciences Program

    NIAID