Nina Schwalbe

Schwalbe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Her mother, Mary Anne Schwalbe, was one of the founders of the International Rescue Committee UK, and founding director of the Women's Refugee Commission.^[1][2] Her brother Will Schwalbe is an author, editor, and entrepreneur.^[3]

Schwalbe was an undergraduate student in Russian and Soviet Studies at Harvard Radcliffe Colleges, where she was the recipient of the Aloian-Beal Leadership Award.^[4][5] Immediately after graduation, Schwalbe joined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Thailand.^{[citation needed]} In 1993, Schwalbe received a Master's in Public Health from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health,^[6] where she concentrated on maternal child health, as well as a certificate from Columbia's Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union.^[7]

Schwalbe started her career in Thailand and Russia, working for the Soros Foundation and establishing the public health program in Moscow. On returning to the United States she was made Director of Public Health Programs at the Open Society Institute/Soros Foundation.^[8] Amongst other global initiatives, Schwalbe worked with Paul Farmer and Partners in Health to treat drug resistant tuberculosis in Russian prisons.^[9][10] She was on the founding board of the Stop TB Partnership and spearheaded the development of first Global Plan to Stop TB.^[11]

In 2005, Schwalbe was made Director of Policy at the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development.^[12] In this capacity, she developed collaborations and coalitions between governments of low and lower-middle income and OECD countries, UN bodies and members of the G8 to accelerate the regulatory approval and procurement and distribution of new therapeutics for tuberculosis.^[12]

Schwalbe joined GAVI, the vaccine alliance, in 2007, serving as Deputy Executive Secretary and Managing Director for Policy and Performance.^[13] In her seven years at Gavi, Schwalbe developed policies and strategy on vaccine investment, market shaping, monitoring and evaluation, and performance management. She worked on the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine and GAVI's first gender policy.^[14][15] In 2011, Schwalbe successfully negotiated with pharmaceutical companies and other stakeholders to expand the Gavi portfolio to include affordable Human papillomavirus vaccines.^[16][17][18] Schwalbe was Chair of the GAVI Evaluation Advisory Committee from 2019 to 2021.^[19]

Schwalbe worked as UNICEF's principal advisor and acting chief of health, where she oversaw health programs in over 150 countries. She was responsible for delivering over 1 billion vaccines annually to children around the world.^[20] Working with experts, frontline providers, and communities worldwide, Schwalbe developed the UNICEF Strategy for Health 2016-2030, which lays out a detailed vision for ending preventable maternal, newborn and child death and promoting the health of all children and adolescents.^[21] Schwalbe was member of the interagency design team for the Global Financing Facility for Maternal, Child, Newborn and Adolescent Health (GFF) a partnership housed at the World Bank.^[22]

Schwalbe sits as Commissioner for The Lancet on gender and health,^[25] a commissioner for the Women's Refugee Commission, and serves as a Principal Visiting Fellow at the United Nations International Institute for Global Health. She is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is also adjunct assistant professor in the Heilbronn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.^[26]

Schwalbe and her partner live in New York City with their two children.^[27]