Celebrating the Public Health Career of Lois Privor-Dumm

Lois Privor-Dumm is a public health champion with extensive global health and vaccine experience in various areas including policy, advocacy, and vaccine delivery strategies. As a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), she focuses on building trust in vaccines and using evidence to advocate for national policies and drive equitable uptake of vaccines sub-nationally. Lois is interested in providing equitable access to healthcare for older adults, including vaccines that improve their health and well-being.

To help celebrate Lois Privor-Dumm’s long and accomplished career as she begins her retirement, we are sharing the Q&A discussion below.

Q&A:

What inspired you to work in the vaccine field? Specifically, adult vaccines?

Privor-Dumm: I ended up in the vaccine field somewhat by chance. I first worked on childhood vaccine introductions in the US and had the opportunity to work on Prevenar, the first pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. I had the honor of introducing the vaccine into the US and regions globally, but I realized the inequitable access to vaccines needed to be addressed.

Then the opportunity arose to work with advisors I had always respected—Mathuram Santosham, Orin Levine, and Kate O’Brien. So, I left pharma for a three-year project that turned into 19 years. I didn’t know at the time how much I loved the vaccine field until I realized how many people could be protected from preventable diseases with vaccines. I wanted everyone to have the same opportunities and enjoy a healthy life without the harmful impact of those infectious diseases. I liked the challenging work and jumped at the chance to work on Hib and pneumococcal vaccines.

Working with many like-minded and dedicated people, both globally and at the country level, we successfully changed the trajectory for vaccine access in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Gavi and partners made a significant difference in childhood vaccination, but there were still many gaps to address in access for adults. I wanted to make sure my parents were protected so that also led to my interest in vaccines for adults. Working on adult vaccines and healthy aging caused me to realize how often the impact of preventing disease in older adults is not discussed. The benefits of vaccinating adults are great and the cost is relatively small, just like for children. It is a huge missed opportunity to ignore adult immunization, particularly considering the impact extends beyond older adults to the rest of us.

What drew you to the International Vaccine Access Center?

Privor-Dumm: IVAC was a natural next step since their work was an extension of the PneumoADIP and Hib Initiative. IVAC’s projects enabled me to continue working with my colleagues on various issues facing LMICs. I loved the independence to explore new ways of tackling problems. I remember one of my first projects at IVAC—we wanted to understand why Coca-Cola could make it to the last mile in many countries while vaccines could not. IVAC embodied that type of thinking—a desire to ask the hard questions and find potential solutions to them. I was drawn to the brilliant minds, great friends, and bold people at IVAC. The combination of great people, impactful work, and a winning approach made IVAC the ideal workplace.

Which projects at IVAC did you find most impactful or meaningful?

Privor-Dumm: It is tough to narrow down to a few, but the Hib Initiative and PneumoADIP projects were special to me, particularly given my background and seeing how that work benefited everyone. It was meaningful because of how much effort it took to build trust and then engage countries and partners so they saw the value of vaccines.

Establishing World Pneumonia Day and working with the STOP Pneumonia coalition (now Every Breath Counts) was an incredible experience. I also appreciated our partnerships in India while working with Global Health Strategies and the Gates Foundation. That taught us about the importance of country ownership and building the value of vaccines by engaging a broad array of stakeholders. The adult vaccine work I did was also a meaningful turning point in my time at IVAC, and it became even more important during the COVID-19 pandemic. My work with Baltimore City, including with community ambassadors and faith leaders, inspired me in a way that has changed me. I was accustomed to the injustices in other places, but it was both difficult and inspiring at the same time to see what local communities can do to make a difference in many people’s lives. We are all interconnected—seeing people’s voices uplift each other and sharing those experiences was meaningful to the community and those able to benefit from the work.

How did your work with Baltimore City during the pandemic develop?

Privor-Dumm: It started with a focus on older adults to understand the challenges of vaccinating that population against the flu. The work quickly evolved into work on COVID-19 and applying those lessons learned in real time. Fortunately, the Baltimore City Health Department and the Maryland Department of Health were proactive and willing to prioritize activities that addressed the long-standing distrust of the health system and structural inequities that threatened our response to the pandemic. This community-led approach made a large difference in Baltimore, and many other places domestically and globally.

What do you see as the biggest challenge(s) for IVAC?

Privor-Dumm: The vaccine landscape is changing, and the problems are becoming more challenging to resolve. There are some positive shifts, which include engaging the Global South more. In this space, IVAC’s role needs to evolve as well. There are smaller, yet still important, scopes of work that may require completing projects in shorter time frames. IVAC will need to take chances and work on projects in different areas. There are plenty of opportunities to address gaps in vaccine access and keep the momentum moving forward.

Where do you envision IVAC’s work moving towards?

Privor-Dumm: I envision IVAC continuing to grow—with ingenuity, knowledge, and strong leadership. IVAC’s work impacts people’s lives immensely, and their work will continue to address gaps in vaccine access—ensuring the health of zero-dose children and their families, working in middle-income countries, and expanding to immunizations across the life course. I also expect IVAC to continue building on its strengths, including estimating disease burden, quantifying the value of vaccinations, assisting countries in strengthening their health systems, and communicating messages that support advocacy and country policies.

Which colleagues, mentors, or partners are you most proud of?

Privor-Dumm: That’s a tough list to narrow down! I’ve worked with so many brilliant and amazing people. 

• The leaders of IVAC have been outstanding. Mathu Santosham, Orin Levine, Kate O’Brien, and William Moss are legends. I could go on forever about each one and their vision, impact, and inspiration. 
• Maria Knoll has been a brilliant colleague and friend, and I can’t say enough about how she leads us scientifically and makes working at IVAC fun.
• Colleagues including Naor Bar-Zeev, Chizoba Wonodi, Anita Shet, Mary Carol Jennings, and our Economics team have all been innovative and inspiring. 
• There were so many people who made a difference in our work in India including Mathu, Andrea Sutherland, Hope Johnson, Kelly Healy, Molly Sauer, Margaret Miller, and Prar Vasudevan (and Anjali Nayyar and our dear friends and partners at Global Health Strategies, as well as Anant Shah, Raj Shankar Ghosh, Devendra Khandhait, Amber Zeddies, the Government of India, and the many experts, advocates and partners who successfully changed the vaccine landscape).
• Going back to Hib Initiative and PneumoADIP days, Rana Hajjeh, Alyson Bear, Angeline Nanni, Hans Kvist, Julie Buss Younkin, Hope Johnson, Nicole King, and others were instrumental in making things happen. I am proud of our teams and partners that accomplished paradigm-shifting change, including Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, WHO, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the STOP Pneumonia (World Pneumonia Day) Coalition.
• The champions in the countries including Samir Saha, Senjuti Saha, Lulu Bravo, Naveen Thacker, Rakesh Kumar, Anuradha Gupta, and so many others have advocated for vaccination programs in their countries and beyond. I love that I’ve worked with them and hopefully played a small part in their advocacy success. They have all accomplished so much!
• Some of the people above are former students and there have been a few every year that have stood out and gone on to work in governments, universities, NGO’s, and industry all over the world. It’s been great co-teaching the vaccine policy issues course with Dan Salmon and Matt Dudley. 
• Closer to home—working with faith leaders, particularly Pastor Terris King, Bishop Carter, Laura Lee Hall, Chinnie Ukachukwu and the Faith Health Alliance made me proud.
• And in efforts near and dear to my heart, working with the International Federation on Ageing, the International Longevity Center, and the Global Coalition on Aging have helped bring vaccination to the adult population.
• Colleagues in the industry have been integral to success. It is great to see all of the efforts at the IFPMA, DCVMN, and African Vaccine Manufacturing.
• JHU’s Center for Health Security has also helped bring community engagement and adult vaccination to the forefront.