October 1, 2026
After four years of service, Roger I. Glass, MD, PhD, informed the trustees of the CMB Foundation that he intends to step down from his position of President at such time a successor has been identified and prepared to take office. CMB trustees are profoundly grateful to Dr. Glass for his service to the organization, especially during this time of a challenging geopolitical and global health landscape.
Dr. Glass’s leadership has been critical to the CMB Foundation as it navigated the U.S.-China relationship and expanded its activities in Southeast Asia. He managed these developments under a new strategic plan that he fostered, stressing cooperation and mutual benefit between US health professionals and institutions and their counterparts in China and Southeast Asia.
Dr. Glass brought to his tenure four decades of experience in global health, where he led research, built capacity, and promoted international collaboration. Prior to his time with the CMB Foundation, Dr. Glass was the longest-serving Director of the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (2006-2023). At NIH he led efforts to support and facilitate global health research conducted by U.S. and international investigators, building partnerships between health research institutions in the United States and abroad, and training the next generation of scientists to address global health needs. During his tenure, NIH helped launch the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, partnered with PEPFAR to support the Medical Education Partnership Initiative in Africa, joined the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD), and launched the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Initiative, followed by Harnessing Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa (DS-I Africa), to build research capacity on the African continent by African scientists. Dr. Glass began his federal career as a medical officer assigned to the Environmental Hazards Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1977. On secondment from CDC, he worked as a Scientist at the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh from 1979-1983. In 1984, he joined the National Institutes of Health Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, where he worked on the molecular biology of rotavirus. In 1986, Dr. Glass returned to the CDC to become Chief of the Viral Gastroenteritis Unit at the National Center for Infectious Diseases. Dr. Glass received his B.A., M.P.H., and M.D from Harvard University. He also has a Ph.D. from the University of Gothenburg.
CMB Foundation is an American foundation whose mission is to advance health, equity, and the quality of care in China and Southeast Asia. More information about our activities can be found at www.cmbfound.org.
For inquiries regarding the search for the next president of the CMB Foundation, please contact Erika Elvander at eelvander@cmbfound.org or Dr. Joseph C. Kolars at jckolars@med.umich.edu. More details available at www.cmbfound.org/careers/president/.