Lois Privor-Dumm

Lois Privor-Dumm is an expert in the field of vaccine introduction. She is especially recognized for her work with new vaccine introduction, which has included strategies to accelerate access in low and middle income countries, policy research, advocacy, communications and large country introduction.

She has worked with countries in all income groups and has leveraged her experiences in high and middle income countries to contribute to the significant recent improvements in access in low and low-middle income countries. She currently serves as the Director of Alliances & Information at the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her team conducts advocacy and communications for child health, coordination of the World Pneumonia Day Coalition and working with large countries such as India and Nigeria to provide technical assistance in the form of advicacy and communications, evidence synthesis, stakeholder mapping and research to help countries develop strategies to address the barriers to decision making and implementation for new vaccines.

Her team has worked closely with a variety of stakeholders in India and Nigeria and is focused on building both high-level political and grassroots support. She is currently leading projects in India and Nigeria made possible through grants from the GAVI Alliance and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

She is a member of the GAVI Large Country Task Team and the PDP Access Steering Committee and has worked on a number of access related projects dealing with economics and financing, supply, distribution and demand forecasting in addition to her work with advocacy, communications and policy.

Background and education

Ms. Privor-Dumm holds an International MBA (IMBA), formerly Masters in International Business (MIBS), from the University of South Carolina and completed her studies and internship in Brussels, Belgium. She completed her undergraduate studies at the State University of New York at Albany in Business Administration (Finance) and Spanish.

Early career

Ms. Privor-Dumm spent years in the vaccine industry working for Wyeth, where she helped lead efforts to launch Prevnar (pneumococcal conjugate vaccine) in the US, achieving unprecedented uptake of a new pediatric vaccine. Following the successful US experience, she worked as Commercial Director for the Latin American countries to introduce pneumococcal and meningococcal vaccines. Later she worked as Senior Director for Commercial Operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa providing guidance to countries to build awareness about Wyeth’s vaccines and pharmaceuticals in the scientific community, supporting efforts with policy makers regarding the introduction of new vaccines and providing marketing and operational expertise to support ongoing business. She also worked at GlaxoSmithkline as director for global commercial strategy for various projects.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

In 2005, she joined The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to lead Communications & Strategy for the Hib Initiative, a GAVI-funded project with an aim to accelerate and sustain decisions regarding Hib vaccines to help prevent meningitis and pneumonia in children. Now serving as Director of Alliances and Information for IVAC, she has been cited as an expert for different global vaccine campaigns and been involved in research and promotion of vaccine awareness. She has been inverviewed by Developments Magazine and African Press International about the availability of pneumonia related vaccines in African countries.

Ms. Privor-Dumm has also worked on different communication tools regarding the availability of vaccines in developing countries in order to raise awareness about the value of pneumococcal and Hib vaccinations to prevent pneumonia and reach Millennium Development Goals 4 by 2015.

Research

AVI-TAC

The mission of the Accelerated Vaccine Introduction Initiative (AVI) is to save lives, prevent disease and promote health through timely and equitable access to new and underused vaccines. Together, AVI partners serve to:

• Empower countries to make evidence-based decisions on new and underused vaccines.
• Support successful country introduction and sustained use of new and underused vaccines.
• Contribute analyses and assess impact of GAVI Alliance (GAVI) policies that influence accelerated introduction of new and underused vaccines.
• Ensure sufficient supply of new and underused vaccines of assured quality and meeting programmatic needs of developing countries.

The Accelerated Vaccine Initiative Technical Advisory Consortium (AVI TAC) supports the achievement of AVI objectives through its leadership in creating the evidence base, advocating for evidence-driven decision-making, and building platform capacity that can be used to accelerate the introduction of future vaccines.

Publications

• Hib Vaccine Could Reduce Major Childhood Diseases
• Getting life-saving vaccines to those who need it most: the nuanced solution for access
• The Economic Case for Expanding Vaccination Coverage of Children
• What Happiness Looks Like: A Chance for Change on World Pneumonia Day