Wafaa El-Sadr

El-Sadr is a member of the science planning committees for the International AIDS Society conference in Vienna (2010) and the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI, 2010). She is currently a member of the Technical Advisory Group on Tuberculosis for the World Health Organization and a board member for the Population Council. She has served as a member of the Antiviral Advisory Committee for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Advisory Council for the Elimination of TB at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She also has served on the amfAR board. She is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and previously chaired its tuberculosis committee.

In 2008, El-Sadr was named a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow. In 2009, Rolling Stone magazine named El-Sadr in its list of "100 People Who Are Changing America." In the same year, she was also named as one of Scientific American 10: Guiding Science for Humanity. She is also a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. In November 2009, The Utne Reader named El-Sadr one of the "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World."

From 1988 to 2008, El-Sadr led the Division of Infectious Diseases at Harlem Hospital Center, where she helped develop HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) program. She has led a number of research studies and grant-funded programs through funding from the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Agency for International Development, Health Resources and Services Administration, New York State and New York City Departments of Health as well as private foundations.