Ms. Debra Lappin is recognized across government, academic, and nonprofit sectors as a leading strategist in public health and science policy.

Ms. Lappin consults on innovative precompetitive partnerships, global consortia, and other strategic alliances among academic research institutions, voluntary health agencies, government, and industry. She brings special expertise in regulatory science where her practice leads a range of initiatives for patient-focused drug development and the generation of value models for payment and coverage determinations.

A skilled facilitator of scientific meetings, Ms. Lappin brings an ability to translate and synthesize complex scientific information for diverse audiences and to elicit collective and balanced input. She is respected and trusted by senior leaders across the nation’s health agencies, having served on advisory boards to the directors of both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and as Chair of the National Arthritis Foundation, President of the Council for American Medical Innovation, and a member of the  Boards of Research!America, the Next Fifty Initiative, and the Ludeman Center for Women’s Health Research.

Ms. Lappin has supported UsA2 in the design of a number of its defining initiatives, including  the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s, the Global Alzheimer’s Platform,  the Alzheimer’s Disease Patient and Caregiver Engagement initiatives and, most recently, the Alzheimer’s Disease Evidence Accelerator, a platform for the collection, linkage, and sharing of real world data in Alzheimer’s. 

Bucket list item: Meaningful travel

Favorite book: "Portrait of an Artist" by James Joyce