Center for Health Security announces fellows accepted to Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative class of 2026

December 17, 2025 – The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security has accepted 25 professionals into its Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative (ELBI) fellowship program for 2026. his incredibly accomplished and diverse class was chosen from 270+ applicants through a rigorous selection process. Throughout the year, new fellows will attend 3 multi-day workshops and additional in-person networking opportunities with some of the top minds in domestic and global health security.

Now in its thirteenth year, the highly competitive part-time ELBI fellowship program inspires and connects the next generation of leaders and innovators in the biosecurity community. The program is an opportunity for talented career professionals to deepen their expertise, expand their network, and build their leadership skills through a series of sponsored events coordinated by the Center. This fellowship boasts more than 330 alumni who come from government, defense, private industry, science, law, public health, medicine, global health, journalism, the social sciences, and academia.

The 2026 ELBI Fellows are:

• Casey Aveggio, RAND
• Annemieke Brouwer, European Commission
• Liyam Chitayat, MIT
• Daniel Cornforth, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Jonathan Dyal, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
• Paul-Enguerrand Fady, Centre for Long-Term Resilience
• Maximilian Görlitz, DG HERA, European Commission
• Jasper Götting, SecureBio
• Crystal Grant, The Council on Strategic Risks
• Kimberly Ma, National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology; George Mason University
• Raquel Medialdea Carrera, World Health Organization
• Alex Morrison, UK Home Office
• Oyeronke Oyebanji, CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations)
• Mara Pillinger, Mirror Biology Dialogues Fund
• Luca Righetti, GovAI
• Kate Rogers, UK Cabinet Office
• Wasim Sajjad, National University of Medical Sciences, Pakistan
• Brianna Saunders, HHS Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR)
• Raffael Schumann, University of Cambridge
• Camille Simoneau, Department of State
• Matt Smith, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
• Kemper Talley, RTX BBN Technologies
• Anthony Torres-Ruesta, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), University of Cambridge
• Kayla Woodward, National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility
• Jordan Wynn, MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Amanda K. Mui, Hannah Ottman-Feeney, and Andrea Lapp manage the ELBI fellowship program. The program is supported by the Open Philanthropy Project.

About the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security: 
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security works to protect people from epidemics and disasters and build resilient communities through innovative scholarship, engagement, and research that strengthens the organizations, systems, policies, and programs essential to preventing and responding to public health crises. The Center is part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD.