Robert D Newman

Dr. Robert D. Newman is a pediatrician and currently Director of AMP Health, a public-private partnership to improve health systems and outcomes by collaborating with governments to strengthen leadership & management capabilities, previously the Managing Director for Policy and Performance at the GAVI Alliance Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. He oversees organizational strategy setting, market shaping, policy development, business planning, and monitoring & evaluation. Before joining GAVI, Dr. Newman was Director of the Global Malaria Programme at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva from 2009 to 2014. Previously, he was Deputy Chief for Science and Chief of the Program Implementation Unit in the Malaria Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He also served as the CDC Team Lead for the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), directing a staff of more than 45 public health professionals in Atlanta and 15 African countries. During the past decade, Dr. Newman has been dedicated to advancing the science of preventing malaria during pregnancy and infancy in sub-Saharan Africa, and served as the principal investigator for numerous epidemiological studies and clinical trials. From 1998-2000, Dr. Newman was Mozambique Country Coordinator for Health Alliance International, a non-governmental organization working on maternal-child health.

Previously, he was VP and Global Head of TB at Johnson & Johnson; CDC Cambodia Country Director, overseeing activities related to HIV/AIDS, TB, and health security; Managing Director for Policy and Performance at Gavi; Director of the Global Malaria Programme at WHO from 2009-2014. From 2000-2009, he was at the CDC Malaria Branch, serving as CDC team lead for the US Presidents Malaria Initiative from 2006-2009. He began his career studying Cryptosporidium in Brazil in the early 1990s, and worked as Country Coordinator of Health Alliance International in Mozambique in the late 1990s.

He has a BA in English Literature from Williams College, MD from Johns Hopkins University, and MPH from University of Washington. He completed a residency in Pediatrics at UW-Seattle Children’s Hospital (1996), and a National Research Service Award fellowship in General Pediatrics (1998). He has published 70 peer-reviewed articles on malaria and other infectious diseases.