Dr. Cristina Rabadán-Diehl is a multidisciplinary scientist with over 30 years of experience working in Academia, Government and the Private Sector. She spent more than 20 years at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as an intramural scientist and program administrator, managing scientific and global health programs and directing the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Office of Global Health.

After leaving the NIH in 2014, she held the position of Director of the Americas at the Office of Global Affairs, Office of Secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She worked with all counties in the Americas region and international multilateral organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), and the G20, on policy issues representing the United States of America. Dr. Rabadan-Diehl played key roles in advancing U.S. government health priorities around the world by levering her technical and policy knowledge and interacting with many stakeholders, including scientists and Ministers of Health. She was the HHS Secretary’s Representative to the US-Mexico Border Health Commission and the Technical Advisor to the HHS Deputy Secretary during his participation at the WHO High Level Non-Communicable Disease Commission.

Currently, Dr. Rabadán-Diehl is an Associate Director for a Contracting Research Organization (CRO), where she provides scientific expertise and guidance to the Clinical Trials Practice. She is a National Advisory Council Member for the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a member of the Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Advisory Council (Montgomery County, Maryland) and collaborates with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Department of Mental Health and Substance Use. She is an Ambassador for Shatterproof, a national nonprofit dedicated to reversing the addiction crisis in the United States and a member of S.O.U.L. (Surviving Our Ultimate Loss), an organization aiming to help parents cope with the loss of a child due to drug overdose.

Dr. Rabadán-Diehl holds a Pharm.D. from the School of Pharmacy at the Universidad Complutense (Madrid, Spain), a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Miami (Miami, FL, USA) and a Masters in Public Health and a Certificate in Health Communications from Johns Hopkins University School of Public Heath (Baltimore, Maryland, USA). She is an Adjunct Professor and the Director of the Global Health Diplomacy course at George Washington University.