Annie Mayer Bridwell, DVM, PhD, has been named executive director of the Ryan Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Solutions at the WashU School of Public Health. The appointment was announced by Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, the Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the School of Public Health, the Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health and the university’s vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives.
Established with philanthropic support from WashU trustee Tony Ryan and his wife, Ann, the Ryan Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Solutions accelerates evidence into action by convening leaders across disciplines and sectors. The institute supports applied, solutions-focused work through global summits, seed funding for interdisciplinary teams and a postdoctoral fellowship program that trains the next generation of public health leaders.
As executive director, Bridwell will shape the institute’s intellectual agenda, oversee key initiatives and expand cross-sector partnerships to address challenges such as maternal health, mental well-being, chronic disease and climate-related risks.
“The most consequential health challenges do not sit neatly within a single discipline, and neither will the solutions,” Bridwell said. “The Ryan Institute can serve as a catalytic force, aligning diverse expertise around shared priorities and measurable progress. I look forward to working with colleagues and partners across sectors to shape an institute grounded in intellectual range and rigor and unafraid to ask hard questions about what shapes health.”
Bridwell is an infectious disease scientist whose work integrates basic, clinical and public health research to advance understanding of immune and epidemiologic mechanisms underlying disease and to advance vaccine and therapeutic development. She most recently served as a program officer at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she oversaw large, multi-institutional research networks. Her experience bridges academic science, federal research leadership and early-stage biotechnology across human and animal health.
