Sindy Escobar-Alvarez, Ph.D.

Sindy Escobar Alvarez is the program director for medical research. In this role, she designs and manages grant programs to support clinical research that advances the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of human diseases. Through her work, she aims to promote inclusive, equitable and effective grant making.

Bringing her research experience in industry and academia, Escobar Alvarez previously served as senior program officer for medical research at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, supporting evaluation efforts to inform program strategy, building relationships with the scientific community, and managing processes to identify awardees of the foundation's programs to support sickle cell disease research and the retention of early-career physician scientists. Throughout her career, Escobar Alvarez has shared her scientific contributions and insight about the clinical research workforce through presentations at national meetings and in peer-reviewed publications.

Escobar Alvarez currently serves as vice chair of the Board of Directors of the Health Research Alliance, a coalition of non-profit funders of biomedical research, and is a past member of both the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute's Advisory Panel on Rare Diseases and Vivli's External Advisory Committee. She is a graduate of the Pharmacology Department at the Weill Cornell Medicine Graduate School of Medical Sciences, through which she trained at the Sloan Kettering Institute of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.