About the Speaker

Rick Bright is formerly the chief executive officer of the Pandemic Prevention Institute (PPI) at The Rockefeller Foundation. Dr. Bright lead the development of the Foundation’s pandemic data-to-action platform that integrates modern technology, data analytics and global partners to help the world detect, prevent, and mitigate pandemic threats to achieve containment as quickly as possible. Prior to this role, he served as the deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response and the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Bright has also gained extensive experience in the biotechnology industry where he served in senior leadership and executive management roles. He has held senior scientific leadership positions in non-governmental organizations where he championed innovative vaccine development and expanded vaccine manufacturing capacity to multiple developing countries. He also spent a decade in vaccine, therapeutics, and diagnostics development at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For this work, Dr. Bright received the Charles C. Shepard Science Award for Scientific Excellence. Dr. Bright received a PhD in immunology and molecular pathogenesis from Emory University and a BS magna cum laude in biology and physical sciences from Auburn University at Montgomery.

About Resilience in a Changing World

The near future is clarifying itself. Over the coming decades, life will change as we know it on planet Earth. From climate instability to culture change, plagues of misinformation to global pandemics, human society faces more threats than at any other time in our history. At the same time, humanity is newly equipped to adapt, with emerging tools like artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and social innovation that have the power to reverse the narrative of impending global disruption. The time is now for us to integrate these powerful new methods - to intentionally design a more Just and Resilient future together.

The Resilience In A Changing World series will invite speakers to speculate on how we get from here to there, from our current inflection point to habitable futures where both our people and planet thrive amidst increasing uncertainty and change.