Tanisha Jackson

Tanisha Jackson, Ph.D., leads Pew’s biomedical programs, which include the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences, the Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences, and the Pew-Stewart Scholars Program for Cancer Research. These initiatives provide funding to early-career investigators of outstanding promise.

Before joining Pew, Jackson served as program director for training at the National Institute on Aging, where she managed a portfolio of training grants focused on the epidemiology and genetics of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. She also held leadership roles in research funding and development, including serving as scientific program director for Melanoma Research Alliance and as assistant director for research development and diversity initiatives at Columbia University’s Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Jackson began her career in immunology research, completing postdoctoral training at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research studying B cell tolerance and the genetics of lupus, and working as an associate research scientist in the Department of Rheumatology at New York University School of Medicine, where she developed a novel model of neonatal lupus.

Jackson holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Spelman College and a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.