Ann Marie Kimball

Ann Marie Kimball is an American physician. She is known for being the pioneer of electronic disease surveillance for infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics. She is currently a Professor Emerita in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington, a Consulting Fellow at the Chatham House Royal Institute of Foreign Affairs, and was a Strategic Consultant in Global Health at the Rockefeller Foundation. Kimball served as a technical and strategic lead for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation infectious disease surveillance strategy formation.

Kimball's research on global trade and emerging infections has earned her a Fulbright New Century Scholars award and a Guggenheim Scholars award. She is the author of two books: Risky Trade: Infectious Diseases in an Era of Global Trade and Risks and Challenges in Medical Tourism. She has also done extensive media work with television, radio and the press. Kimball brought important innovations to international infectious disease surveillance through the founding of the APEC Emerging Infections network advanced electronic disease surveillance and networking in the Asia Pacific. She served as an Emergency Room Physician at Northgate General Hospital, Seattle from 1979 to 1981. As an Attending Physician, she held appointments at the Harborview Medical Center Madison Clinic for HIV from 1991 to 1996, at Harborview Medical Center International Clinic from 1997 to 2002, and at the Harborview Medical Center Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic from 2002 to 2011. From 1991 to 2011, she was associated with Harborview Medical Center Medical Staff, and also served as Volunteer Physician at Walker-Whitman Clinic for a year.

Works During the early days of the Internet Kimball founded the APEC Emerging Infections Network in 1996, and led research and training programs in Surveillance and Informatics in Peru and Thailand.

In 2003 after supporting APEC/EINET, APEC formed a health task force which became formalized into a standing working group in 2007. Heading the National Alliance and the AIDS effort in Washington State, Kimball promoted the critical role local and state public health entities through the AIDSNET organization in Washington State.

As the HIV/AIDS pandemic reached the Asia Pacific Kimball advocated for public private partnerships to strengthen the weak public sector capacity in the region. She founded the Asia Pacific Alliance Against AIDS at the Yokohama global HIV/AIDS Conference, forerunner to the Global Business Council on AIDS founded in 1997.

Recruited to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2012, Kimball led the development of a foundation wide infectious disease surveillance strategy which was presented and adopted in 2015. Concurrently she negotiated the development of Menafrinet, a surveillance system for meningitis across West and Central Africa co-led by national authorities, the CDC, and Medecins Preventif of France.

In her policy studies regarding novel human infections, Kimball has also discussed new challenges and health security against pandemic threats. Since 2015, she has served as a Senior Consulting Fellow for Chatham House, London. In 2019, she introduced Innovative fellowship program based on the strengthening of public health leadership in Africa. Her research indicated that Ebola virus disease crisis in West Africa revealed critical weaknesses in health policy and systems in the region, and emphasized the significance of innovative models in terms of enhancing the capabilities of emerging leaders. She also conducted a study in Peru in 2007, highlighting the role of internet as a tool to approach high-risk men who have sex with men. In her studies, she also discussed quantitative measurements regarding the impacts of cholera on international trade particularly in Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in 1997.

In her research regarding COVID-19 and Spanish flu, Kimball stated that "The coronavirus mutates at a slower pace than flu viruses, making it a more stable target for vaccination." Furthermore, she focused on acquiring the immunity in order to survive the infection.

In 2006, Kimball published a book Risky Trade: Infectious Disease in the Era of Global Trade. Nitsan Chorev discussed the book as an "interplay between globalization, trade and travel, and infectious diseases." Núria Torner states that the "book raised interesting questions on infectious diseases and offered new insights into what future challenges may face mankind" and also discussed how it gives a reader "a thorough insight into how our "modern" civilisation, with its so-called globalisation trends, has upset the balance between natural barriers and infection spread." Andrew Price-Smith reviewed that the author of the book "provides an excellent critique of health governance at the domestic level within the United States."

Awards and honors 1972 - President, ASSU Council of Presidents, Stanford University 1975 - Alpha Omega Alpha 1992 - Secretary of HHS, Recognition Award, Department of Health (DOH) Division of HIV/STD and AIDSNETS 1992-1993 - chair, National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD), Washington District of Columbia (DC) 1993-1996 - President, EIS Alumni Association, CDC 2000 - Fellow, American College of Preventive Medicine 2001 - Fulbright New Century Scholar Award 2004-2005 - Guggenheim Scholar Award, "Emerging Infections and Global Trade" 2008 - Nominee, Outstanding Women of Washington, UW Celebrating Women, Seattle 2011 - Professor, Emerita, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Washington 2016 - Bellagio Scholar, Rockefeller Foundation award "Planetary Health and Emerging Infections"