Debra R. Lappin |
Senior Vice President
debra.lappin@bakerd.com
Professional Experience
Debra Lappin is recognized across government, academic and non-profit sectors as a public servant and leading strategist in public health and science policy. She consults on innovative public-private partnerships and other alliances to drive translation research and public health promotion and prevention. Calling upon her experiences as former national chair of the Arthritis Foundation, she is a recognized national spokesperson on public engagement in the nation's public health and scientific enterprise.
Debra's practice focuses on the increasingly influential role of non-profit patient organizations as partners with government in research, development and prevention, where she orchestrates coalitions, global consortia, and other strategic alliances among academic research institutions, voluntary health agencies, government and industry. Areas of focus for such collaborative agreements has included work with the leading causes of disability, Arthritis and Alzheimer's Disease, and rare diseases, such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Most recently, she has orchestrated science policy campaigns on issues of open access and genetic non-discrimination. Drawing upon her understanding of health agency trends, law, ethics, and practical business challenges, she advises on the development of a broad range of emerging, complex tools to enable translation, such as disease registries, large integrated databases, bio-specimen repositories and cross-institution affiliations to share data.
Debra serves or has served as an advisor to the leading agencies in public health, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, and has participated on a number of committees at the National Academy of Sciences, including the Committee on the Organizational Structure of the NIH which led to a number of directions incorporated in the 2006 NIH Reform Act. She is President of the Council for American Medical Innovation, a member of the Board of Research!America, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.
Professional Associations
- Council for American Medical Innovation — President
- Research!America — Board Member
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — Advisory Committee to the Director
- National Library of Medicine PubMed Central Advisory Committee — Member
- National Institutes of Health Counsel of Public Representatives — Charter Member
- Institute of Medicine Committee on National Immunization Policy Data Sharing — Member
- Committee on the Organizational Structure of the NIH — Member
- The Arthritis Foundation — Trustee Emeritus
Facility Positions
- University of Colorado Health Sciences Center — Department of Medicine, Adjunct Faculty Member
Podcasts
Presentations
- "Designing Innovative Medical Research Systems," Moderator, Milken Institute Global Conference, Los Angeles, April 26, 2010
[ View the Video ]
- "The Third Rail of Health Reform: Cost," Panelist on Incentives for Change, National Health Summit, Nashville, Tennessee, August 29, 2009
- "Enhancing the Vitality of the National Institutes of Health," Inaugural Meeting of the NIH Scientific Management and Review Board, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., April 27, 2009
- "The 21st Century Patient — A New Partnership with the Biomedical Enterprise," Joseph Leiter Lecture, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Md., May 14, 2008