Dear CMB Colleagues and Friends,

As this new year begins, I am delighted to embark on my new role as President of CMB.

Serving as a member of CMB’s Board of Trustees for the past four years, I have come to admire the foundation’s long tradition of excellence supporting and promoting meaningful work in China and Southeast Asia. I am inspired by CMB’s spirit of collaboration; its long-term support of health professional education, research that matters, health policy, and global health; and its commitment to health equity. What a remarkable foundation on which to build.

A heartfelt thank you to my immediate predecessor, Dr. Lincoln Chen, who served as CMB president for the past fourteen years. Lincoln’s searing intellect, strategic vision, academic rigor, boundless energy, personal warmth, and innumerable collaborators and friends transformed CMB.  He set a high standard of excellence for CMB’s work and recruited and empowered an outstanding and dedicated staff to design and implement its programs. I am particularly grateful for all he has done to ensure a smooth transition.

My professional life has been in academic medicine, serving over the years as a clinician (pediatrician, neonatologist), educator, research scientist, and administrator. Most recently, I served as Dean of the  McGovern Medical School of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center; thus, CMB’s work in medical education has deep resonance with me. My research has focused on perinatal epidemiology, neonatal infections, clinical trials in newborns, and international child health. A career-long interest in improving maternal, newborn, and child health may open new paths for CMB and its partners in Asia to explore shared interests and concerns.

I am excited and honored to be assuming leadership of CMB at this particularly important time, knowing that I have a lot to learn as I begin this wonderful new adventure. I look forward to meeting CMB colleagues and friends in person, when international travel can safely resume, and to benefitting from your wisdom and insights.

Warm wishes for a wonderful new year—and thanks.

Barbara J. Stoll