The Trump administration has appointed health technology entrepreneur Alicia Jackson as director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.
Jackson, who had a previous stint at the Department of Defense, will lead an agency tasked with accelerating research and development of cutting-edge health projects, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. She founded and most recently served as CEO of Evernow, a telehealth firm specializing in women’s healthcare, according to her LinkedIn profile.
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Jackson was also co-founder and chief technology officer of Drawbridge Health, which offers home-based blood-sampling devices. She additionally served as chief technology adviser at women’s healthcare company Oova and board member of ImmuneBridge, a company focused on cancer therapies.
What Did Jackson Do at DARPA?
Before working in the private sector, Jackson served for over one year as deputy director of the biotechnology office at DOD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. She previously held for more than three years the role of program manager for the agency’s $200 million portfolio of projects—that she established—in synthetic biology and unconventional electronic devices.
Jackson holds a PhD on materials science and engineering, nanotechnology, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
She was sworn in as ARPA-H chief Monday, replacing Jason Roos, who was named acting director after the agency’s former head, Renee Wegrzyn, was removed in February following the U.S. government’s transition to the second Trump administration, according to The Well News.
