Jessica Cowden, M.D., MSc., is the Deputy Director General of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI)’s Clinical, Assessment, Regulatory, and Evaluation (CARE) unit, where she leads strategic initiatives, program development, and oversees regulatory processes and clinical trial execution. She is based in IVI’s Europe Regional Office in Stockholm, Sweden.

Dr. Cowden brings over 20 years of experience from the U.S. Air Force, where she served as a pediatrician, pediatric infectious disease specialist, global health expert, physician/scientist, and infectious disease program director. Before joining IVI, she was Chief of Retrovirology at the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (WRAIR-AFRIMS) in Bangkok, Thailand, leading HIV vaccine and cure research in collaboration with partners across Southeast Asia.

Her career also includes leadership in vaccine research and development, including roles as Acting Chief Medical Officer for the U.S. Military Vaccine Acceleration Project during the COVID-19 pandemic; Director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Walter Reed Project Kombewa Clinical Trials Center in Kisumu, Kenya; and physician/scientist in the malaria vaccine program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

Dr. Cowden earned her M.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, completed her Pediatrics residency at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and specialized in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Denver Children’s Hospital. She holds a Master of Science in Public Health from the University of Colorado and is board-certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases. She is an Associate Professor at the Uniformed Services University.