New Chief Scientific Officer Joining Nationwide Children's Hospital

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) - Joanne Turner, PhD, BSc, is returning to Columbus, Ohio, to serve as the chief scientific officer at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Dr. Turner was the executive vice president for research and a professor at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. Prior to that role, she was on the faculty at The Ohio State University for 14 years, rising to the rank of tenured professor in the Department of Microbial Infection and Immunity.

Dr. Turner's research focuses on immunity to mycobacterial infection in relation to aging. She has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) continuously for 20 years, acquiring $12 million in grant funding during her career to date, and was the first woman at Ohio State to receive a prestigious research program project grant (P01) from the NIH. A prolific author with nearly 100 peer-reviewed publications, she is a reviewer for several journals and served as the associate editor for Pathogens & Immunity (2015-2022) and Aging Cell (2013-2018).

"Dr. Turner's highly respected research and leadership at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute and at Ohio State position her well to take on the role of chief scientific officer. We are excited to have such an accomplished scientist lead our innovative research programs across the Nationwide Children's enterprise," said Dennis Durbin, MD, MSCE, president, Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's.

While at Ohio State, Dr. Turner was associate director of the Infectious Diseases Institute (2017); director for Women's Academic Advancement, Center for Faculty Advancement, Mentoring, and Engagement (FAME) (2016-2017); chair, President and Provost's Council on Women (2015-2016); and associate director of education for the Center for Microbial Interface Biology (2014-2017). She has served on numerous committees throughout her career, most recently on the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) leadership committee for UTHealth San Antonio.

Dr. Turner received her BSc in Immunology and Biochemistry at King's College, University of London, and completed her PhD in Immunology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Microbiology at Colorado State University, where she also served as a research assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology until her initial recruitment to Ohio State in 2003.

About The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital
Named to the Top 10 Honor Roll on U.S. News & World Report's 2023-24 list of "Best Children's Hospitals," Nationwide Children's Hospital is one of America's largest not-for-profit free-standing pediatric health care systems providing unique expertise in pediatric population health, behavioral health, genomics and health equity as the next frontiers in pediatric medicine, leading to best outcomes for the health of the whole child. Integrated clinical and research programs are part of what allows Nationwide Children's to advance its unique model of care. As home to the Department of Pediatrics of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children's faculty train the next generation of pediatricians, scientists and pediatric specialists. The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital is one of the Top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded free-standing pediatric research facilities in the U.S., supporting basic, clinical, translational, behavioral and population health research. The AWRI is comprised of multidisciplinary Centers of Emphasis paired with advanced infrastructure supporting capabilities such as technology commercialization for discoveries; gene- and cell-based therapies; and genome sequencing and analysis. More information is available at NationwideChildrens.org/Research.

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