Gates Foundation's Peter M. Small Appointed Founding Director of Stony Brook University Global Health Institute
The GHI’s work will be informed by a close partnership with PIVOT, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) dedicated to establishing an evidence-based model health system in Madagascar. PIVOT was cofounded by the Herrnsteins and is being incubated by global health giant, Partners in Health. PIVOT's mission is to provide clinical care and alleviate the burden of disease among a target population in Ranomafana, and produce a sustainable model for health system strengthening in resource-poor settings. In effect, the GHI will serve as a vibrant research partner for the NGO and Centre ValBio, with the aim of broadening its scope and reach as it matures.
"Stony Brook University is doing remarkable work in global health,” said Keith Martin, MD, Executive Director of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. “Madagascar sits at an extraordinary interface and is a bellwether of the future of biodiversity, sustainable ecosystems and by extension the health of human beings. Dr. Small's appointment to Stony Brook University will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience dealing with a wide array of disciplines. This is precisely the interdisciplinary skill set that is needed to address the complex global health challenges the world faces."
For most of his 12-year tenure at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Small was responsible for the design and execution the foundation’s tuberculosis program, managing collaborations with global donors and implementers; building a large program to develop improved vaccines, drugs and diagnostics, and establishing the Foundation’s country programs in China, India and South Africa. In 2011 he relocated to India to delve deeper into the ways in which innovation in tuberculosis delivery systems might accelerate the decline of tuberculosis incidence.
Dr. Small’s research career has focused on the nature and consequences of genetic variability within the species M. tuberculosis. Originally focused on exploiting genetic variability to track the spread of tuberculosis in populations, his work shifted over time to more fundamental questions about mycobacterial ecology and evolution. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1981 and his medical degree from the University of Florida in 1985. He completed his post graduate training in internal medicine at University of California-San Francisco and infectious diseases at Stanford University. Immediately prior to joining the Gates Foundation in September of 2002, he served on the faculty of Stanford’s Division of Infectious Disease and Geographic Medicine where he was actively involved in research, teaching and patient care. In addition to his work at the Gates Foundation, until 2008 he was a professor at the Institute of Systems Biology in Seattle.
A fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology, Dr. Small is a global expert in several aspects of TB epidemiology, biology and control. He has published more than 150 articles and chapters including landmark studies in the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Science and Nature that helped to shape the public health response to the resurgence of tuberculosis in the 1990s. Much of this involved collaborative efforts with basic scientists, public health officials and clinicians to use molecular epidemiologic techniques to address pragmatic questions about the control of tuberculosis. This work included population-based field research projects in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe.
