Title: Advancing the Mission: Future Directions for NIH HIV Research
Speakers: Leslie Marshall, PhD (Deputy Director of the NIH OAR) and Julie Pulerwitz, ScM, ScD (Senior Science Advisor and Implementation Science Lead in the NIH OAR)
Speaker Bios
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Leslie Marshall, Ph.D., was appointed Acting Deputy Director of the NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in August 2025. Dr. Marshall is a molecular virologist and product developer by training, with broad experience across academic, government, and industry settings. She works with the OAR Director to coordinate the NIH HIV research program, spanning $3.29 billion USD in funding to 22 NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices. In this role, she leverages her programmatic expertise to support innovative approaches and challenge prevailing paradigms, tackling complex problems and driving change that can positively impact the health of all people impacted by HIV. She is committed to an intersectional, data-driven approach to research on HIV.
Dr. Marshall joined OAR in January 2022 as a Health Scientist Administrator, managing the biomedical prevention, HIV status and viral load testing technology development, women’s health, neuroHIV, and clinical research portfolios. As the Acting OAR Deputy Director, she continues to lead the HIV clinical research portfolio and the NIH Signature Program on HIV and Women. With a robust background in health administration and a focus on HIV research coordination, her tenure at the NIH has been marked by significant contributions to the development of the HIV research strategy. Efforts ensure investments flow into areas of scientific importance, fostering collaborations and supporting women's health in the HIV research continuum.
Dr. Marshall has a long history at the NIH, bringing deep knowledge of NIH operations and expertise in basic science. She completed a research fellowship studying mechanisms of JC virus neuropathogenesis and latency in the Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Neuroscience at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), followed by nearly a decade as Contracting Officers Representative in the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID). At DAIDS, she administered contracts focused on preclinical support for HIV nonvaccine biomedical prevention (nBP) product development. In this role, she served as a liaison to academic and industry partners, developing strategic approaches to meet regulatory requirements for advancing topical microbicides and nBP products to clinical testing.
Prior to joining the NIH, Dr. Marshall worked at Merck Research Laboratories, where she developed analytical methods for their HIV and HPV vaccine programs. She received a doctoral degree in Microbiology and Immunology from Wake Forest University and an undergraduate degree from Susquehanna University.
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Dr. Julie Pulerwitz is a Senior Science Advisor (C) and Implementation Science Lead in the NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR), where she oversees implementation science program efforts and leads the NIH-wide Advancing Research in Implementation Science to End HIV (ARISE) initiative. Through ARISE, she coordinates HIV implementation science across NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices to accelerate progress toward ending the HIV epidemic. ARISE advances research agenda-setting, funding opportunities, and capacity-building efforts to strengthen the implementation science workforce and catalyze impact nationwide.
Dr. Pulerwitz brings more than 25 years of experience in HIV implementation science and socio-behavioral research to this effort, and is a widely cited author and presenter. Prior to joining OAR, Dr. Pulerwitz held senior leadership and advisor roles at the DC Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), and USAID’s Male Engagement Task Force. She also directed multimillion-dollar research portfolios at Population Council and PATH and advised WHO, UNAIDS, and other global partners, bringing strong experience in strategic leadership and research translation to her role at OAR. She received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.