Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, who has led the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for seven years, will succeed Dr. Anthony Fauci this fall leading the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Marrazzo became a media fixture during the COVID pandemic, frequently appearing on local and national news outlets to explain in a calm and authoritative voice the latest developments with the virus, even as cases overwhelmed Alabama hospitals and political divisions complicated the public health response.

Before COVID-19, Marrazzo was already prominent in the field of infectious diseases, said Dr. Monica Gandhi, director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of California at San Francisco.

“Dr. Marrazzo is really a leader in the field of HIV prevention and STDs and HIV in women,” Gandhi said. “She led one of the major trials that helped us understand the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis in women.”

Marrazzo grew up in Pennsylvania, she said on the Reckon Interview podcast. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and studied medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

She spent two decades at the University of Washington School of Medicine as a faculty member before she came to UAB. Her work focused on women, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

She has appeared as an author on hundreds of research papers and has obtained dozens of grants, according to her profile on UAB.

Dr. Carlos Del Rio, a professor of medicine at Emory University and expert in infectious diseases, said Marrazzo has a strong research background and will bring a unique perspective.

“She’s lived in the South, and she’s got the experience of living outside the northeast,” Del Rio said. “And Fauci was in New York and D.C. and never anywhere else. She’s seen the West. She’s been in Seattle, and she’s been here. So, she has a better perception of the bigger America”

During the COVID pandemic, Marrazzo came out in support of emergency public health measures that closed business and mandated mask wearing. She served on Governor Kay Ivey’s COVID task force. As the pandemic wore on, she said she believed that young children could attend schools with rigorous safety measures in place.

“So is there a way that you can bring young kids back to school, make sure that they are not infected, make sure their families aren’t infected, which is another issue in question to raise and make sure that the teachers and staff are not infected?” Marrazzo told Reckon Radio. “And if that’s the case, can you create a relatively COVID free environment so that they can go back to school? Because you’re balancing the sustained psychological and developmental damage of keeping kids out of school for a prolonged period.”

Alabama leaders did adopt mask mandates in 2020 that expired in 2021. Most public schools opened for in-person instruction in 2020.

Dr. Karen Landers, chief medical officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health, said the agency worked closely with Marrazzo and benefitted from her expertise and generosity. She said Marrazzo has an incredible understanding of the science and literature of infectious diseases.

“She is a phenomenal selection,” Landers said. “I could not think of anyone better, but I am very sorry to lose her from the state of Alabama and also from UAB.”

Polarization during the pandemic damaged trust in public health, Gandhi said. Marrazzo will face challenges trying to repair it, she said.

“She will have to navigate helping with transparency and with honesty about what we know and what we don’t know,” Gandhi said. “She will have to navigate in a public way bringing the nation back into alignment around infectious diseases.”

It’s not the only obstacle facing Marrazzo as she joins NIAID. A program passed under President George W. Bush to fight HIV/AIDS in other countries has recently come under scrutiny by conservative lawmakers. Some Republican congressmembers have threatened to withhold funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief over concerns that money could flow to organizations that provide abortion, according to Politico.

The pandemic also disrupted domestic efforts to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS and coincided with a spike in sexually transmitted infections. Antimicrobial resistance, which makes drugs less effective in fighting bacterial infections, is also on the rise, Gandhi said.

Gandhi said Marrazzo has been an effective leader throughout her career.

“Her leadership style has really brought the division together at UAB and I have every confidence she can do this as head of NIAID,” she said.