Chief Executive Officer

Loretta L. Doan, Ph.D.

Loretta L. Doan, Ph.D.

Loretta L. Doan, Ph.D., is the incoming Chief Executive Officer of The American Association of Immunologists (AAI). Driven by a passion to advance science to improve health, Dr. Doan has channeled this passion into her career in scientific and medical associations. She excels in elevating awareness of associations and the fields they serve; enhancing influence with policymakers and stakeholders; and building and nurturing strong teams of professionals who support organizations and their members.

Prior to joining AAI, Dr. Doan was the Chief Science & Policy Officer for the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC). At AACC, Dr. Doan transformed the association’s advocacy work into a proactive, influential, and strategic program with recognition and brand awareness among policymakers. Notable successes include annual federal appropriations for programs of interest to AACC and its members, and policy changes that facilitated testing throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, Dr. Doan and her teams streamlined AACC’s governance structure; invigorated the association’s scientific affairs programs; revitalized the business model for the association’s journals; and initiated growth in AACC’s professional education portfolio.

Before joining AACC, Dr. Doan served in progressive science policy roles for the Endocrine Society. While there, she built the society’s science policy portfolio from the ground up, identifying new opportunities and expanding the society’s approach from engaging only in “policy for science” work to include “science for policy” issues. Working with key experts in the field, Dr. Doan envisioned, initiated, and oversaw the society’s signature program on endocrine-disrupting chemicals. The comprehensive and novel program combined rigorous scientific assessment with outreach to federal and international policymakers, in combination with new and creative partnerships. This approach positioned the society as a unique and trusted contributor to the policy debate and changed the public discourse around the health effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

Dr. Doan holds bachelor’s degrees in communications and chemistry from Indiana University Southeast. She earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Louisville, where she performed doctoral research in the laboratory of H. Leighton Grimes, Ph.D. She performed a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Alfred Singer, M.D., in the Experimental Immunology Branch of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health.

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