Joseph F. O'Neill MD, MS, MPH

Dr. Joe O’Neill was credited by President George W. Bush, who named him as his Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy in July 2002, as being the “architect” of his Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the largest public health program directed against a specific disease in world history. PEPFAR is currently providing antiretroviral therapies to nearly 10 million people around the world who otherwise would be dying from HIV/AIDS. Dr. O’Neill served as the only physician member of the White House Domestic Policy Council during President Bush’s first term.

These experiences strengthened Joe’s view that enduring solutions to the pressing health problems of our day will only be found through the synergy of both public and private resources.  He has served as CEO of a publicly traded biotechnology company, founded several startup companies and served as a member of the governing board of Fyodor Biotechnologies, an African-led biotechnology company based in Legos and Baltimore that has launched a new and potentially disruptive malaria point of care diagnostic in the West African market.

He has served as a professor of medicine and director of global initiatives for the University of Maryland where he was responsible for international activities in Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, Law, Social Work and Graduate Studies. While there Joe initiated and oversaw initiatives that ranged from conducting medical disaster relief in Haiti after the earthquake, delivering HIV/AIDS care in sub-Saharan Africa and establishing on-line training programs for students interested in global health.

A bedside physician and student at heart, Joe studied Palliative Medicine at the University of Cape Town, completed a clinical fellowship in Palliative and Hospice Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and practiced palliative and hospice medicine in rural Maryland before coming to his current position at the National Institutes of Health. He has served on the advisory boards for several organizations in this arena including the Diana, Princess of Wales Fund, The Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa and The African Palliative Care Association.

Dr. O’Neill is a graduate of the Schools of Business Administration and Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley and earned his MD from the University of California at San Francisco.  He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha (medicine) and Beta Gamma Sigma (business administration) national academic honor societies and a lifetime diplomate of the American College of Physicians.