Global Health Expert, Alumnus Mark Dybul Returns to Georgetown to Lead New Center

Posted in GUMC Stories

June 28, 2017 – A well-recognized global health expert and humanitarian, who most recently served as executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, returns to Georgetown this summer to lead a new global health center at the Medical Center.

Dr. Mark Dybul (C’85, M’92), a tenured professor of medicine at Georgetown’s School of Medicine, has been named faculty director of the new Center for Global Health and Quality, which will seek to work with international partners to respond to some the most pressing global health challenges of our time.

“We are experiencing a remarkable time of rapid geopolitical and economic change in the world,” says Dybul, who once served as U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator (2006-2009). “As a result, this is a critical time in global health. But we are in a position where if we are careful, smart and strategic, we can take hold of a tremendous opportunity and make great progress.”

Cross-campus Enterprise

The new center, which will work to bring quality services to scale while maximizing resources, also intends to explore new policy and management strategies to respond to global health challenges.

As part of this approach, GHQ will examine how data such as quality metrics and private sector information can complement existing health metrics. Its areas of focus will vary in scope and be developed in partnership with other countries and additional relevant stakeholders.

Dybul says the GHQ is structured as a multidisciplinary, cross-campus enterprise that will leverage the leading minds in global health, health care, big data, service delivery, economics, program design, private sector, international relations, law and management, and more.

Critical Thinkers

The center will look to include the work of researchers who have a proven track record of leading, reforming and implementing initiatives in complex settings.

“Through the GHQ, we’ll bring together top critical thinkers in academia to form strategic collaborations with a focus on developing and deploying high quality and efficient strategies,” Dybul explains. “By supporting countries as they tackle major health challenges, we also contribute to economic growth and development. We can achieve our Georgetown mission of cura personalis – cure of the whole person – by taking care of global communities.”

Dybul served as a HIV research fellow at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under director Dr. Anthony Fauci in the late 1990s. He conducted basic and clinical HIV research at NIAID, and eventually conducted the first randomized, controlled trial with combination antiretroviral therapy with HIV patients in Africa.  

National, International Work

The Georgetown alumnus went on to lead President George W. Bush’s International Prevention of Mother and Child HIV initiative for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and in 2006 was named U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. 

As U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, he led the implementation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a health initiative Dybul helped create. He later became the inaugural Global Health Fellow of the George W. Bush Institute.

Dybul returned to the Hilltop in 2009 to serve as co-director of the Global Health Law Program at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. He left the institute to serve as executive director of the Global Fund in 2013, a tenure that ended on May 31.

Global Health Initiative

“We are excited about the new energy, experience and leadership Dybul brings to Georgetown,” says Dr. Edward B. Healton, executive vice president for health sciences and executive dean of the Georgetown School of Medicine. “A key leader in global health, Mark joins a strong and dedicated cohort of Georgetown faculty members who have devoted their careers to global health.”

Earlier this year, Georgetown launched a Global Health Initiative, the first university-wide effort to collectively leverage the research, education and service in global health undertaken by Georgetown faculty, staff and students.

Advancing Our Work

“There is perhaps no one better to advance the work of GHQ than Mark Dybul, who has served the global community, and our Georgetown community, with extraordinary distinction for many years,” says Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia. “We are grateful to welcome him back to the Hilltop and we look forward to all he will accomplish in the time ahead.”

In 2008, Georgetown honored Dybul with a Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa and in 2012, presented him with the Timothy S. Healy S.J. Award for his “outstanding public service in support of humanitarian causes and advancements for the benefit of mankind.”

“I’m excited to be back at Georgetown to lead the GHQ,” Dybul says.