Leadership

Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board

Kent Kester, MD, COL (Ret.), USA

Kent E. Kester, M.D., is currently Executive Director Vaccine Research and Development at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). During a 24-year career in the US Army, he worked extensively in clinical vaccine development and led multiple research platforms at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, the U.S. Department of Defense’s largest and most diverse biomedical research laboratory with a major emphasis on emerging infectious diseases, an institution he later led as its Commander. His final military assignment was as the Associate Dean for Clinical Research in the School of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS).

During his military service, Dr. Kester was appointed as the lead policy advisor to the US Army Surgeon General in both Infectious Diseases and in Medical Research & Development. Other roles included service as the head of translational medicine and biomarkers at Sanofi Pasteur and head of translational medicine at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). Dr. Kester holds an undergraduate degree from Bucknell University and an M.D. from Jefferson Medical College, completing his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Maryland and a clinical and research fellowship in infectious diseases at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Currently a member of the Department of Veterans Affairs National Research Advisory Council and the National Academy of Medicine’s Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, he previously chaired the Steering Committee of the NIAID/USUHS Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program, and has served as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB), the FDA Vaccines & Related Biologics Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), the NIAID Advisory Council, and the CDC Office of Infectious Diseases Board of Scientific Counselors. He is the Vice Chair of the National Academy of Medicine Forum on Microbial Threats.

Board-certified in both internal medicine and infectious diseases, Dr. Kester holds faculty appointments at USUHS and the University of Maryland; and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the Infectious Disease Society of America, and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He is a member of the clinical faculty at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore and the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre, PA.