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Dr. Stacey Adam, Ph.D. '07 Pharmacology, received the Distinguished Alumni Award from The Graduate School during the afternoon Centennial Hooding Ceremony held on Saturday, May 9, 2026. Read her bio, hear her remarks, and listen to her on the latest episode of Duke GradCast, below.
Stacey Adam, Ph.D., is the recipient of Duke Graduate School’s 2026 Centennial Distinguished Alumni Award. As Vice President of Science Partnerships at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), Dr. Adam oversees a scientific portfolio exceeding $800 million, leading public-private partnerships that accelerate medical breakthroughs for some of the world’s most complex health challenges.
The far-reaching impact of Dr. Adam’s career is most evident in her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the ACTIV Initiative, Dr. Adam played a pivotal role in harmonizing global clinical trials to speed the development of vaccines and therapeutics, an effort that saved countless lives. Her leadership also extends to revolutionary oncology programs, including Lung-MAP, a master protocol to accelerate the development of lung cancer therapies, and PACT, which standardizes immunotherapy biomarkers across the research community to advance new therapies and treatments.
Dr. Adam's career exemplifies the belief that "science really can be a team sport.” Her foundational research at Duke was conducted under the mentorship of Dr. Christopher Counter, George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology. While at Duke, Dr. Adam developed innovative porcine models of cancer, a project that required extensive collaboration and set the stage for her lifelong commitment to cross-disciplinary partnership.
Dr. Adam’s career path, from a Stanford postdoctoral fellowship to management consulting at Deloitte and finally to the FNIH, demonstrates the versatile power of a doctoral degree. Beyond her executive roles, Dr. Adam serves as a board member for CureSearch for Children’s Cancer and co-chairs the American Association for Cancer Research Trust in Science Task Force.
All of us gathered here today are direct benefactors of Dr. Adam’s commitment to skillfully employing cross-disciplinary science in the advancement of human health. As her mentor Dr. Counter observed, we each owe her a debt of gratitude for paving the way to the COVID vaccines that protected our families and communities. As a result of that work, we can now safely gather again at milestones like commencement.