About

BIOGRAPHY
Jim Welch served 19 years as the executive director of the Elizabeth R Griffin Research Foundation, a US-based non-profit organization that works nationally and globally promoting biosafety and biosecurity in fostering global health security. Upon his retirement in 2018, the Foundation was transitioned to the Elizabeth R Griffin Program at the Center of Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical School where he now serves as an Affiliate. He is a member and was the originating chair of the steering group of the Global Health Security Agenda Consortium (GHSAC), was the first NGO member of the Global Health Security Agenda Steering Group and is on the International Working Group on Strengthening the Culture of Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Responsible Conduct in the Life Sciences. He has been associated with the Joint External Evaluation International Alliance (JEE), the OIE Consultation Group on Sustainable Biosafety and Biosecurity, and served for over a decade on the advisory board of the National Biosafety and Biocontainment Training Program at the US National Institutes of Health. He served on the governing councils of the International Federation of Biosafety Associations (IFBA) and ABSA International. He was as a named member of the Law Enforcement and Veterinary International Conference at INTERPOL, an external advisor for the Duke University Infectious Disease Response Training Program, and a member of the Global Health Security Roundtable. He was the 2011 recipient of the John H Richardson Award of ABSA International and is an honorary member of the Association of Primate Veterinarians and the International Biosafety Working Group. He currently is on the advisory board of the Global Biorisk Advisory Council and is the elected president of the Kingsport, Tennessee Board of Education. He has been a key speaker, instructor, moderator and panelist at professional and governmental conferences, seminars, universities and private companies around the world.