To the role of Executive Director of Global Health Labs (GH Labs), Steve Kern brings a passion for global health technology innovation and nearly 40 years of cross-sector experience in pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeling, clinical pharmacology, control systems engineering for drug delivery, and medical device development.  

Prior to GH Labs, Steve led the Quantitative Sciences Team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, providing quantitative analyses that shaped program strategies and therapeutic product development efforts in global health for nearly a decade. Before that, Steve was Global Head of Pharmacology Modeling at Novartis Pharma AG based in Basel, Switzerland, where his team provided model-based drug development support to therapeutics initiatives that spanned a range of disease conditions and all stages of product development. Earlier in his career, Steve also served as Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics, Anesthesiology, and Bioengineering at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where he also served as co-investigator for their NIH funded Pediatric Pharmacology Research Unit.  

Steve earned his PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Utah, MS in Bioengineering from Penn State University, and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University.