Yen Pottinger ’97 is a trained public health virologist with 20 years of experience domestically and internationally. She currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation (CAPRi), a nonpartisan international think tank based in Taipei, Taiwan. CAPRi focuses on meeting challenges to resilience at the intersection of health, economic growth, technology, and environmental sustainability.

Previously, Yen was the Senior Technical Advisor for Laboratory Surveillance at ICAP at Columbia University in New York City for eight years. While at ICAP, her work focused on implementing HIV public health programs, primarily in Africa, focusing on understanding key transmission dynamics and preventing further infections. She also worked on improving HIV laboratory systems and diagnostic testing, collaborating with Ministries of Health and other global and local partners. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Yen provided technical assistance and guidance to the CDC and other US government entities and elected officials, ministries of health globally, and other partners on SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing and safety protocols, and led a number of COVID-19 seroprevalence studies in sub-Saharan Africa.

Prior to ICAP, Yen worked as a microbiologist at the CDC in Atlanta and served as the HIV Incidence Team Lead in the International Laboratory Branch within the Division of Global HIV and TB. During her eight years at the CDC, she developed, validated, and implemented the Limiting Antigen Avidity Assay (LAg), a novel incidence test to distinguish between recent and long-term infections to understand HIV transmission dynamics. The LAg assay is now the gold standard incidence test, as well as the most widely used test of its kind globally for HIV surveillance studies (more than 60 countries), and has provided key HIV incidence estimates to PEPFAR and non-PEPFAR countries. During her first year at the CDC, she served as an ORISE fellow for her post-doctorate training in the domestic Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention.

In 2022, Yen received an Emma Willard School Distinguished Alumnae Award for her commitment to lifelong learning and deep intellectual curiosity within the fields of virology and public health.

Emma Willard School welcomes Dr. Pottinger back to campus as Commencement Speaker for the graduating Class of 2025 on Sunday, June 1.