Avalere Health announces that Emily Lobelo has joined the firm as a principal focused on vaccine policy. Emily will help clients develop and implement federal, state, and global policy as well as vaccine business insights and strategies.

Emily says, “This is such an exciting time for the vaccine community. The rapid development and deployment of immunizations were instrumental in helping the world to navigate its way out of the COVID-19 pandemic and showcased how immunizations save lives. I’m thrilled to join the dedicated team here at Avalere to help guide our clients through the many challenges and opportunities of today’s vaccine technology and policy landscape.”

Emily previously spent 15 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she held several policy leadership roles, including as the long-time director for influenza policy, as a senior leader for preparedness and response policy, and as the policy lead for several public health responses, including the COVID-19 response.

“The vaccine policy ecosystem is evolving rapidly in response to multiple converging factors and is challenging existing policy and access paradigms,” says Miryam Frieder, co-director of Avalere’s Policy Practice. “The industry’s got a robust and varied vaccines pipeline, and stakeholders are grappling with the transition to the commercial COVID-19 vaccine market, the implementation of vaccine-related provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, and the development of new vaccine platforms and delivery modalities. Emily’s extensive experience across the CDC equips her to advise organizations leveraging her deep insight into the policy and legislative dynamics and the interagency collaboration that shapes the US vaccine landscape.”

Emily holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. She holds a doctorate in health policy and management from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, where she analyzed the cost-effectiveness of the influenza vaccination based on household income and researched influenza vaccination coverage among US adults.