GAITHERSBURG, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The MdBio Foundation, a non-profit that provides STEM education and workforce development to underserved communities, today announced Brian Rosen, vice president, Commercial Strategy, at Novavax Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), was named chair of the board of directors. Rosen will succeed Jennifer Cotteleer, who has served as board chair for two years.

“Rosen is passionate about the organization and our mission; we are thrilled he is taking on this important leadership role,” said MdBio CEO Brian Gaines. “He combines a commitment to STEM education, a distinguished industry and policy background, and a new energy that will help our organization grow and flourish.”

“All of us at MdBio appreciate the hard work and dedication of our outgoing chair, Jennifer Cotteleer, whose unique combination of enthusiasm, determination and drive has helped lead us forward over the past two years,” said Gaines. “During her tenure as MdBio’s chair, we have experienced a time of tremendous growth, tripling the size of our mobile laboratory program and expanding educational programming to two new states.”

Rosen has served on the MdBio Foundation board for four years. He joined Novavax in 2015 and is responsible for leading the commercial strategy efforts that are instrumental to ensuring patient access to Novavax vaccines. He has more than 20 years of industry, policy, and patient advocacy experience. Earlier in his career he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts and the delivery of patient services nationwide for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and ran the government affairs, policy and alliance development functions for MedImmune.

“Committing to MdBio and its mission has been an incredibly rewarding experience—the organization is making a difference for both students and adults by creating opportunities for them to get excited about learning, more engaged in their futures and showing them the benefits of a STEM-related career,” said Rosen. “I’m honored to be leading the board and look forward to continuing to work with such a great group of people.”

About MdBio Foundation

MdBio Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides innovative, effective and experiential science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce development opportunities to underserved communities. MdBio’s interdisciplinary approach uses STEM to explore a real-world, problem-centric curriculum that bridges school, community, health and business. The foundation’s flagship program is a mobile laboratory for high schools that has provided quality educational experiences to more than 150,000 students throughout the state of Maryland since its launch in 2003. MdBio also operates other celebrated STEM education programs, such as the Young Science Explorers Program for middle school students, the Maryland BioGENEius Award, and ATLAS: Advancing Tomorrow’s Leaders in STEM college and career symposium. Visit www.mdbiofoundation.org or follow on social media @MdBioFoundation.