Stefanie B. McBride, Ph.D.
Associate Director for Policy and Partnerships, Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination and Strategy Unit (ARX), U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Stefanie McBride, Ph.D., is the Associate Director for Antimicrobial Resistance Policy and Partnerships in the Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination and Strategy Unit (ARX) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In this role, Dr. McBride supports strategic policy and partnership efforts to help CDC combat the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance in the United States and around the world. Prior to this role, Dr. McBride supported CDC programs to improve healthcare quality and patient safety and strengthen global health security. She also served as a Special Assistant to a former CDC Director during the West Africa Ebola outbreak and Zika virus emergency responses. After graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Ph.D. in chemistry, she was an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the Department of Defense. McBride received her B.S. in chemistry from the University of Louisville (Louisville, KY) in 2005, graduating summa cum laude.

Michael Craig, MPP
Director, Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination and Strategy Unit (ARX), U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Michael Craig, MPP, is the Director of the Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination and Strategy Unit (ARX) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 2016, Craig has overseen the agency’s domestic and global portfolio, which now totals nearly $200 million annually.

Craig has led efforts to publish multiple high-profile CDC reports, including the Antibiotic Resistance Threats Reports (2013, 2019), the COVID-19: U.S. Impact on Antimicrobial Resistance, Special Report (2022) and Antimicrobial Resistance Threats in the United States, 2021-2022 (2024). Craig also led CDC contributions to the first National Strategy to Combat Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria and the subsequent National Action Plans in 2015 and 2020.

Craig also serves as the Deputy Division Director for Strategy and Operations in CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion. In this position, he guides strategy to protect patients and healthcare workers through safe healthcare delivery systems in the United States and abroad.

Hania Farhan, Ph.D.
Senior Director of Research and Methodology, Gallup

Hania Farhan, Ph.D., is a Senior Director of Research and Methodology at Gallup. Dr. Farhan specializes in research methodology and survey design to measure various dimensions in the fields of social and economic development in an international context. Farhan has worked in both the private and public sectors, specializing in data analysis, measurement design in social science, survey design and composite index construction. She has over 20 years of leading research and managerial experience.

Prior to joining Gallup, she worked as an economist at different organizations, including at The Economist Intelligence Unit - the Economist Group in London, at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, D.C., and in investment banking in London and Johannesburg. Throughout her career, Dr. Farhan has travelled extensively across five continents.

David Lowrance, M.D.
Senior Advisor & Team Lead, Pandemic Preparedness and Response, the Global Fund

David Lowrance, M.D., is a Senior Advisor and Team Lead for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (PPR) at the Global Fund. Dr. Lowrance works in the Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health (RSSH) & PPR Team at the Global Fund where he provides technical guidance and supports partner engagement on emergency preparedness and response in the context of health systems and HIV, TB, and malaria investments, including the COVID-19 Response Mechanism (C19RM). Lowrance joined the Global Fund after several years at WHO spearheading HIV surveillance and strategic information global goods, with an emphasis on data use and digital health. With over 23 years of clinical and public health experience, he has lived and worked in Saipan, the Navajo Nation, Myanmar, Rwanda, Namibia, Haiti and Tanzania, in the latter three countries serving as U.S. CDC country director leading large technical and investment portfolios. David received a M.D. and master’s degree in public health from Tufts University and a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Hebah Mahmoud Dada, M.D.
Director of AMR, Public Health Authority of Saudi Arabia

Hebah Mahmoud Dada is the Director of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) at the Public Health Authority of Saudi Arabia. Before becoming Director of AMR, Dr. Dada was a consultant of medical microbiology at the Public Health Authority. She previously worked in Texas as a clinical and research microbiology fellow at the University of Texas Health Science Center and Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital. She also worked as a medical microbiologist at the Prince Sultan Military Medical City. Hebah holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from King Saud University.

Rob Purdie
Founder, MyCARE; Member, WHO Taskforce of AMR Survivors

Rob Purdie is a lifelong California resident who was diagnosed with coccidioidal meningitis in 2012, the most severe presentation of Valley Fever. Rob relies on daily antifungals to control his disease and has used his experience to help other patients and become a leading fungal disease patient advocate.

In 2023, Rob founded MyCARE, the first patient-led, pan-fungal nonprofit with a goal to bring fungal patients together to share knowledge and experiences and advocate for better care and increased research for their diseases. Rob is becoming a sought-after speaker and key opinion leader in the fungal and AMR communities. Rob’s legislative efforts have included work on state and federal legislation and appropriations to support fungal research and awareness. Rob is also a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Task Force of AMR Survivors and is part of the workgroup developing a Fungal Priority Pathogen List blueprint to provide guidelines to address the pathogens on the list that was created by the WHO in 2022.