Veteran public health leader Anuradha Gupta, who has spearheaded a host of successful global initiatives to improve the health of women and children and boost vaccine access and uptake, has joined Sabin Vaccine Institute as President of Global Immunization.

Gupta's record of crafting and implementing creative solutions around childhood immunizations has been notable. Gupta comes to Sabin after eight years with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, where she served as Deputy CEO and led efforts to center policies, programs and partnerships around vaccine equity, gender and communities.

Gupta's record of crafting and implementing creative solutions around childhood immunizations has been notable. She also pioneered the concept of zero-dose children – those who have not received a single dose of the most basic vaccines – and drove efforts to create a new model of country-level partnerships.

Under Gupta’s leadership, Gavi won many accolades and rolled out a new framework for partner engagement that has helped bolster country ownership of Gavi-supported programs and improved accountability for results. Those achievements contributed to Gavi receiving the prestigious Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award in 2019 for providing sustained access to childhood vaccines in the world’s poorest countries. 

Gupta’s most recent initiative to focus on children who have not received a single shot is audacious for its ambition and scope. She was the guiding force behind Gavi’s $500 million Equity Accelerator Fund which includes an innovative program aimed at reaching zero-dose children in conflict zones and drought-afflicted areas in the Sahel region and the Horn of Africa.

Gupta beleives that children who had been deprived of a single shot accounted for half of vaccine-preventable deaths and that targeting this population could be a game changer for reducing disease outbreaks and improving overall health security.