Maria Julia Marinissen

Maria Julia Marinissen serves as a Health Attache for the Embassy of the United States in Mexico.  Before assuming her current role, she was the director of the Division of International Health Security in the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. Under this position, she represented the HHS in White House National Security Council policy committees and partnerships on global health security. She has also worked as the US Liaison to the Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI) and as the founder and chair of the North American Health Security Working Group.  Marinissen also has expertise in H1N1 vaccine diplomacy, health regulation supervision, WHO compliance, and infectious disease surveillance.

She obtained her Ph.D. and master’s degree in biology at the Universidad Nacional del Sur in Bahia Blanca, Argentina, subsequently serving as a postdoctoral fellow and senior researcher at the National Institutes of Health. After working in science and technology policy for a few years, she graduated from two leadership programs: the Annenberg Leadership Institute and Harvard’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative.