Dr. Maria Freire is the President of Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. She comes to the Foundation from the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, where she served as President since 2008. Prior to joining the Lasker Foundation, Dr. Freire served as President and CEO of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development from 2001 to 2008, Director of the Office of Technology Transfer at the National Institutes of Health from 1995 to 2001, and led the Office of Technol­ogy Development at the University of Maryland at Baltimore and the University of Maryland Baltimore County from 1989 to 1995.
 
Dr. Freire received her Bachelor of Science degree at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru and her Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Virginia. She has also completed post-gradu­ate work in immunology and virology at the University of Virginia and the University of Tennessee, respectively. Dr. Freire has devoted her career to improving health and health research on a global scale.