Improving and Accelerating Vaccine Distribution

Dana Goldman, PhD (Moderator)
Director, USC Schaeffer Center
Interim Dean, USC Price School

Dana Goldman is the Interim Dean at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, as well as the Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair and Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy, Public Policy, and Economics at the University of Southern California. Goldman began serving in his new capacity as interim dean on July 1, 2020.   One of his first initiatives is to establish the Price School Social Justice Advisory Board representing faculty, staff, and students. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Social Insurance –two of his field’s highest honors.  He is the author of more than300articles and book chapters, and his research has been published in leading medical, economic, health policy, and statistics journals. He has raised over $100 million in funding from external sources—including more than $50 million from the National Institutes of Health. Goldman pioneered the “Netflix model” to improve access to prescription drugs and the value of reduced copayments for the chronically ill.   He served as a formal health policy advisor to the Congressional Budget Office, Covered California, National Institutes of Health, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Institute.   He serves on the editorial boards of Health Affairs and the American Journal of Managed Care and is founding editor of the forum for Health Economics and Policy.   His work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Economist, NBC Nightly News and other media. He is the former director of ISPOR and ASHEconand a co-founder of Precision Health Economics, a health care consultancy. Goldman received his B.A. summa cum Laude from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.

Vassilios Papadopoulos, DPharm, PhD, DSc (hon)
Dean, USC School of Pharmacy

Vassilios Papadopoulos, DPharm, PhD, DSc (hon), was named dean of the USC School of Pharmacy in fall 2016. Before joining USC, he served as executive director and chief scientific officer of the Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre in Montreal.

A noted scientist and innovative leader, Papadopoulos has published more than 300 papers, holds numerous patents, and serves on many national and international advisory committees.  He is an elected foreign member of the National Academies of Medicine and Pharmacy in France, fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

For nearly a decade, Papadopoulos led initiatives at McGill University Health Centre’s research arm, which resulted in more than $300 million in federal and provincial grants to build a state-of-the-art facility for clinical and biomedical research.  He established the Desjardins Centre for Advanced Training to foster the development of future scientists and clinicians, and  a business development office to facilitate knowledge transfer and assist in the commercialization of technologies.  Under his leadership, the Research Institute launched numerous international collaborations.  In addition to his leadership roles, he held a Canada Research Chair in Biochemical Pharmacology and the Phil Gold Chair in Medicine.

A School of Pharmacy graduate of the University of Athens in Greece, Papadopoulos holds a PhD in health and life science from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, and he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in France and Australia.  In 1988, he joined the faculty of Georgetown University School of Medicine, rising to become professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.  In 2004, he was appointed associate vice president for research and then director of the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization at Georgetown University Medical Center.  He moved to McGill in 2007.

Papadopoulos’ research focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for the initiation and maintenance of steroid biosynthesis in the adrenal, gonads and brain, in health and disease.  He also examines the regulation of steroid biosynthesis, intracellular compartmentalization and homeostasis by hormones, chemicals, drugs, natural products and environmental factors.  His goal is to understand the pathophysiology of steroidogenesis and develop new tools for the treatment of diseases related to elevated or low steroid levels or alter subcellular steroid compartmentalization as a means to block disease acquisition and/or progression.

His research has direct applications in reproduction and development, cancer, stress-related disorders, aging and brain-related dysfunction, such as Alzheimer’s disease pathology, and infectious diseases, such as HIV.  His work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, private foundations, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Canadian Foundation of Innovation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, as well as the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Neeraj Sood, PhD
COVID Initiative Director, USC Schaeffer Center

Neeraj Sood, PhD, is professor and vice dean for research and faculty affairs at the USC Price School of Public Policy and a founding member the USC Schaeffer Center.  His research focuses on economic epidemiology, infectious diseases, pharmaceutical markets, health insurance, economics of innovation, Medicare, and global health.  He is currently leading a study on COVID-19 in collaboration with Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.  He has published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals in economics, medicine, and policy, including JAMA, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Health Economics, Health Affairs, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management and Health Services Research.  He has testified frequently on health policy issues and has been on expert committees for the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine.  He has received more than $10 million in funding as principal investigator in grants from the National Institutes for Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF) and other prominent funders.  His work has been featured in media outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report and Scientific American.  Sood was the finalist for the 16th and 21st annual National Institute for Health Care Management Health Care Research Award, recognizing outstanding research in health policy.  He was also the 2009 recipient of the Eugene Garfield Economic Impact Prize, recognizing outstanding research demonstrating how medical research impacts the economy.

Sood is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and Health Services Research.  He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a board member of the American Society of Health Economists. Prior to joining USC, he was a senior economist at RAND and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School.

Leana S. Wen, M.D. M.Sc. FAAEM
Visiting Professor of Health Policy and Management
George Washington University School of Public Health

Dr. Leana Wen is an emergency physician and visiting professor of health policy and management at George Washington University’s School of Public Health.  She is an expert in public health preparedness and previously served as Baltimore's Health Commissioner.  A nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, she is also a contributing columnist for The Washington Post and an on-air commentator for CNN as a medical analyst.

Dr. Wen obtained her medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine and studied health policy at the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.  She completed her residency training at Brigham & Women's Hospital & Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was a Clinical Fellow at Harvard Medical School.

The author of dozens of scientific articles on emergency systems and patient-centered health reform, Dr. Wen is also the author of the book When Doctors Don't Listen.  She has received recognition as one of Governing's Public Officials of the Year; American Public Health Association's top award for local public health; Modern Healthcare's Top 50 Physician-Executives; and TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People.