Dr. Maria C. Freire
Executive Director of
The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health

She’s “Coming Back Home”

The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) board of directors announced recently that Dr. Maria C. Freire has accepted the position of president. 

Dr. Freire comes to the FNIH from the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation where she served as their president since 2008. Prior to the Lasker Foundation, she 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. Charles Sanders, FNIH board chairman, says one of the many reasons she was chosen as president was because, “she is a proven executive and an extraordinary leader. She knows the NIH and the NIH knows her. There will not be a steep learning curve.” Dr. Sanders continues by saying she “speaks the language of a scientist as well as being an effective manager.”

Dr. Freire received her Bachelor of Science degree at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru and her PhD 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 is looking forward to moving back to Maryland after living in New York City for many years. She enjoys reading mysteries, particularly those by Elizabeth Peters, and loves Peruvian food.

Her first day at the FNIH will be November 1, 2012.

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