Dr. James E.K. Hildreth has been president of Meharry Medical College, the nation’s oldest and largest historically Black academic health science center in Nashville, Tennessee, since July 2015, but for more than 40 years, the infectious disease expert has investigated viruses.
“The first virus I studied as a graduate student was flu, so, I know a lot about influenza,” says Hildreth whose work on “another pandemic virus, HIV,” has spanned a career.
Now, as SARS-CoV-2, the specific coronavirus strain that causes COVID-19, fuels a new pandemic, Hildreth, the characteristically low-key scientist and CEO, has become a leader in the rapidly evolving response to the outbreak.
