Dr. Josie Golding is the Head of Epidemics and Epidemiology, Infectious Disease Health Challenge at Wellcome. She leads the epidemic preparedness and response across the organization, which includes the COVID19 response. Her role involves bringing together basic sciences, product development, social sciences, public engagement, and policy, to generate more integrated programs of work. This includes supporting research through the FCDO-Wellcome Joint Initiative on Research for Epidemic Preparedness and Response, established in 2018, focusing on generating evidence to inform policy. Over the last five years, she has coordinated Wellcome’s response to the Ebola outbreaks in DRC, Lassa fever in Nigeria, and the Zika and yellow fever outbreaks in 2016-2017. Her background is primarily in infectious diseases, host immunity, and clinical research. She worked at Public Health England (previously known as the Health Protection Agency) working in the Enteric Virus Unit on norovirus and poliovirus, and at the Pirbright Institute on veterinary pathogens including African Swine fever and Rinderpest, with the overall goal to increase the knowledge base of infectious diseases.
