The Anthony Fauci Courage in Leadership Award celebrates individuals who inspire and encourage others to make a difference. It is awarded to a person who has demonstrated courage in leadership and a commitment to promoting scientific integrity, advocating for sound science and advancing the field of infectious disease at their institutions or in their local, national or global communities.
2024 Winner: Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, FIDSA
Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, FIDSA, was a symbol of courage nationally as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. She is also an international leader in HIV policy who has driven policy change to enhance global access to HIV prevention, screening and care.
Dr. Walensky served as director of CDC from 2021 to 2023. Before that, she was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. Currently, Dr. Walensky is a Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School and a fellow at the Harvard Business School.
Known for asking hard questions and doing the right thing, Dr. Walensky speaks the scientific truth with integrity and perseverance even in the face of opposition. Throughout her career, Dr. Walensky has used data to challenge the status quo on behalf of patients.
While at CDC, Dr. Walensky led the nation through much of the COVID-19 pandemic and the most widespread infectious threats ever seen in the United States. Despite being threatened and vilified during the politicized pandemic, Dr. Walensky repeatedly took the high road, working tirelessly to protect lives.
As the voice for science during the pandemic, Dr. Walensky has been an inspiration to her colleagues in infectious diseases and to young people considering careers in infectious diseases and in public health. She participated in nearly 100 press conferences and countless media appearances and provided testimony at 17 congressional hearings.
Dr. Walensky’s research has made the case for more rational and appropriate HIV drug pricing. She is guided by the belief that the clinical and economic outcomes of medical decisions can be improved by explicitly articulating choices, systematically assembling evidence and carefully assessing comparative costs and benefits. Her mathematical model-based research focuses on the promotion of global access to HIV prevention, screening and care.
The author of more than 300 publications, Dr. Walensky has conducted seminal studies demonstrating the impact of the price of antiretroviral therapy for HIV treatment and prevention on patient access and the epidemic overall. She identified pricing decisions that could not be justified by the cost of research and development and publicly challenged the pharmaceutical companies, in professional talks and in Congress, to lower costs, despite receiving substantial pushback.
Her groundbreaking work has led to real changes for people with HIV. Policy changes included improved U.S. HIV testing and immigration policy and expanded funding for HIV-related research, treatment and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Her work also led to policies for aggressive HIV screening — especially for the underserved — and earlier treatment in resource-limited international settings. Dr. Walensky has been an active member of policy discussions at the World Health Organization, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, the Department of Health and Human Services HIV Guidelines Committee and the National Institutes of Health Office of AIDS Research.
IDSA is pleased to recognize Dr. Walensky with the 2024 Anthony Fauci Courage in Leadership Award.
Past Anthony Fauci Courage in Leadership Award
| 2023 | Peter Hotez MD PhD |