Elaine Gallin

Elaine K. Gallin is a partner at QE Philanthropic Advisors, a consulting firm that serves non-profits specializing in biomedical research, science and math education, and international health. From 1999 through February 2010, Dr. Gallin served as the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's (DDCF) first Program Director for Medical Research. In that capacity, she led the creation and management of a portfolio of grant programs that committed more than $185 million to support grants and fellowships aimed at developing the careers of clinical investigators and speeding the translation of basic sciences into new therapies, cures and preventions for human diseases. With Dr. Gallin's leadership, DDCF also helped build the Doris Duke Medical Research Institute in Durban, South Africa, and launched a $65 million African Health Initiative in 2007 to support large-scale health services delivery projects designed to provide integrated primary health care linked to rigorous operations and implementation research in several sub-Saharan African communities.

Before joining the philanthropic sector, Dr. Gallin spent two decades working for the U.S. government, first as a research physiologist focusing on ion channels in leukocytes, and then as research administrator where she last served as the Deputy Director of the Office of International Health Programs in the U.S. Department of Energy overseeing health research programs in countries of the former Soviet Union. Dr. Gallin has participated in numerous professional committees and review panels including serving as a founding member and the first Vice Chair of the Health Research Alliance (an alliance of not-for-profit, non-government research funders). Currently, she is a member of the Sickle Cell Disease Advisory Committee at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, the President's Council of Cornell Women, and the Board of Friends of McCord Hospital in Durban, South Africa. Dr. Gallin received her B.S. from Cornell University and her Ph.D. from the City University of New York, and completed postdoctoral fellowships in Physiology at Johns Hopkins University Medical School and Columbia University Medical School.