HHS announces 5 new ACIP members for September meeting

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Five new members will join the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices when ACIP meets later this week.

On Sept. 15, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the new members to the panel that advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy and practice. The two-day meeting is scheduled for Sept. 18 and 19.

“The new ACIP members bring a wealth of real-world public health experience to the job of making immunization recommendations,” HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said in a news release. O’Neill also is acting director of the CDC. “We are grateful for their service in helping restore the public confidence in vaccines that was lost during the Biden era.”

ACIP provides recommendations to the CDC director and HHS secretary on the use of vaccines for the control of vaccine-preventable diseases in the civilian population of the United States.

The panel has become one of the lightning rods for criticism of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Health and medical organizations have panned his actions for firing the 17-member panel and replacing them before the June meeting. Last month, Kennedy again prompted criticism when the American Medical Association (AMA) announced some liaison organizations would be excluded from HHS deliberations. That includes the AMA, American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American College of Physicians (ACP), American Geriatrics Society, American Osteopathic Association, Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the National Medical Association. For his part, Kennedy has argued the previous ACIP members and liaison organizations had conflicts of interest that should bar them from deliberating on vaccines and health.

The announcement included biographical information on the new members. They are:

• Catherine M. Stein, PhD, a professor of the Department of Population & Quantitative Health, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, Ohio. Stein is an epidemiologist with more than two decades of research experience on tuberculosis and infectious diseases and 115 peer reviewed publications. She has collaborated extensively in genetics, biostatistics, and immunology, and has trained numerous doctoral students at CWRU.
• Evelyn Griffin, MD, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Baton Rouge General Hospital, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Griffin is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology, lifestyle medicine, and functional medicine. With 15 years of clinical practice, she was among the first robotic-assisted gynecologic surgeons in the U.S. and has led efforts to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.
• Hilary Blackburn, PharmD, MBA, director of medication access and affordability for AscensionRx of St. Louis, Missouri. Blackburn leads initiatives to optimize medication access for underserved populations and improve affordability in value-based care. She previously served as chief pharmacy officer at the Dispensary of Hope, overseeing formulary and research strategy. She is also a leader in professional pharmacy organizations, host of the Talk to Your Pharmacist podcast, and author of How Pharmacists Lead.
• Kirk Milhoan, MD, PhD, medical director, For Hearts and Souls Free Medical Clinic, Kihei, Hawaii. Milhoan is a pediatric cardiologist and former U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, with two combat tours in Iraq. He co-founded For Hearts and Souls, an international mission organization for children with congenital heart disease, and has coordinated pediatric cardiac care in more than a dozen countries. He holds a PhD in the mechanisms of myocardial inflammation.
• Raymond Pollak, MD, FACS, FRCS. Pollak is a surgeon, transplant immunobiologist, and transplant specialist who has published more than 120 peer-reviewed works and served as principal investigator on National Institutes for Health transplant biology grants and numerous drug trials. He previously served as chief of liver transplantation and director of multiorgan transplant programs at the University of Illinois, and has held leadership roles with the United Network for Organ Sharing and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.

The current members of ACIP are Chair Martin Kulldorff, MD, PhD; Joseph R. Hibbeln, MD; Retsef Levi, PhD; Robert W. Malone, MD; Cody Meissner, MD; James Pagano, MD; and Vicky Pebsworth, OP, PhD, RN.