Dr. Nirupama Sista is a career researcher with more than 25 years of experience spanning the pharmaceutical industry, contract research organizations (CRO) and a large, global, health and development organization. Dr. Sista currently serves Director of Research and Development at FHI 360. She is also the NIH-funded Director of the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) as well as the Director of the CoVID Prevention Trials Network (CoVPN). The CoVPN conducted trials evaluating vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for prevention. She directs the operations of a multi-disciplinary collaborative international clinical research network focused on more than 20 clinical research studies evaluating antiviral and other interventions. In response to the COVID-18 pandemic, she developed a second operations center for the management of clinical research trials that evaluate interventions to prevent SARS-CoV2 infection. Before coming to FHI 360, Dr. Sista worked as a Senior Clinical Research Scientist for Triangle Pharmaceuticals, now Gilead Sciences, where she served as a Medical Team Leader for a novel anti-retroviral molecule, contributed to integrated product development plans, and presented to regulatory agencies and advisory boards. Prior to working at Triangle Pharmaceuticals, she held positions in Medical Affairs of a clinical research organization. Dr. Sista started her professional career as a Research Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Sista completed her post-doctoral fellowship at UNC Chapel Hill in 1991, after earning her Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Tennessee in 1988. She received a MSc in Microbiology from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Bombay in India.