Dr. Jacob Swett serves as Executive Director and founder of Blueprint Biosecurity, a nonprofit dedicated to achieving breakthroughs in humanity’s ability to suppress pathogens. Drawing from a diverse background spanning scientific research, technology R&D, and political strategy, he is considered a leading voice in the biosecurity community.

Jake founded Blueprint directly after his experience shaping the Apollo Program for Biodefense, a report published in the wake of COVID-19 by the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense. Anchored by Jake’s guidance, the report laid out an ambitious plan for overhauling America’s layers of defense against pandemics. Blueprint was founded to continue this work in the US and abroad.

Jake received a PhD in nanotechnology from the University of Oxford and bachelor’s degrees in physics and applied mathematics from Missouri State University. Before Blueprint, he cofounded a research nonprofit called altLabs and was a research scientist at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center and a biosecurity advisor to Open Philanthropy. He has contributed to over 70 articles and patents and authored op-eds for the New York Times and STAT.

Siobhan Brenton is the Chief Operating Officer at Blueprint Biosecurity, where she oversees the organization’s business operations, HR, finance, communications, and stakeholder development. Siobhan brings over seven years of operational experience across project management, strategic development, finance, and grantmaking logistics. In her most recent role leading operations at Rethink Charity, Siobhan spearheaded the development of their fiscal sponsorship program to provide operational support to new initiatives while they focus on their core missions. She has a passion for implementing solutions to complex problems and has helped launch multiple charities in the US and Canada.

Siobhan received a bachelor’s degree in nutritional biochemistry from Memorial University of Newfoundland and a Master of International Public Health degree from the University of New South Wales.

David Carel is the Managing Director of Blueprint Biosecurity. He has spent the last decade building and scaling organizations that aim to solve some of society’s most pressing problems. In 2012 he co-founded Panorama Education, a Y Combinator-backed data analytics startup that currently helps tens of thousands of public schools across all 50 states answer critical questions about student experience, school climate, parent engagement, and educator professional development. David then lived in South Africa for several years where he helped create and run Funda Wande, an organization that works closely with the South African government to design, evaluate, and scale up early grade literacy and math interventions. In 2023, he joined Blueprint Biosecurity, driven by the urgent need for new pandemic prevention solutions—a need he first recognized at 19 while volunteering in a tuberculosis ward in South Africa.

David received bachelor’s degrees in economics from Yale College and in philosophy, politics, and economics from the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship.

Dr. Lew Radonovich serves as a Senior Advisor at Blueprint Biosecurity, where he leads clinical science, including implementation of far-UVC clinical trials to prevent indoor transmission of respiratory infections. Lew has 25 years of clinical, research, and leadership experience, including a decade at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the Respiratory Health Division, where he served as Deputy Director, and the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, where he worked as a Branch Chief and a physician-scientist. Previously, he was the Director of the National Center for Occupational Health and Infection Control in the Veterans Health Administration.

Lew has a background in internal medicine, clinical pharmacology, and clinical investigation. He was a principal investigator of the Respiratory Protection Effectiveness Clinical Trial (ResPECT) and helped lead the Better Respiratory Protection using Advanced Technologies for Healthcare Employees (Project BREATHE), two studies designed to understand how to prevent workplace respiratory infections. He served in numerous U.S. governmental leadership roles during public health emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2009-10 H1N1 influenza pandemic. He has previously held academic appointments at the University of Florida, the University of Pittsburgh, and Johns Hopkins University.

Victoria Slaughter is the Program Director for the PPE program at Blueprint Biosecurity, where she works to develop and implement strategies that improve the availability of robust and innovative personal protective equipment to prevent and mitigate future pandemics.

Victoria is a cell and molecular biologist by training and has more than six years experience as an R&D scientist, focusing on using biotechnology to improve human health and animal wellbeing. Previously, she worked to develop in vitro human-on-a-chip models to support precision medicine and reduce animal testing, specifically focused on metabolic disease. Most recently, she has led Upstream Development work at Biomilq, a startup aiming to produce components of human breast milk outside the body to improve infant nutrition options and lower the environmental burden of infant formula. Her experience with emerging technologies has led her to prioritize biosecurity and work to respond to the threat of novel pandemics.

Victoria has a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Central Florida.

Richard Williamson is the Research Director at Blueprint Biosecurity, where he leads the Blueprint project on the use of Far-UVC germicidal light to suppress transmission of respiratory pathogens. Richard has over ten years of management and leadership experience in the private sector across strategy consulting, finance, strategic sourcing, and operational supply chain. Most recently he was Head of Technical Operations at Alvea, a vaccine biotech startup, where he was also a member of the R&D leadership team.

Richard led strategic sourcing teams at two of the UK’s largest supermarkets, which involved diving deep into complex value chains and re-engineering optimal supply chains based on those findings. When the Covid-19 pandemic arrived, Richard saw first hand the profound disruption that pandemics bring to the essential infrastructure we rely on every day. Motivated by this experience, Richard decided to take the expertise he developed in the private sector and turn to biosecurity and pandemic preparedness. In September 2022, he published Pandemic prevention as fire-fighting at Works in Progress, laying out an approach to pandemic prevention that takes inspiration from the progress made in preventing great city fires.

Richard has a bachelor’s degree with first class honors in philosophy, politics, and economics from the University of Oxford.

James Montavon is the Deputy Director for the Far-UVC program at Blueprint Biosecurity, where he works to accelerate the development and adoption of far-UVC light as a scalable tool for reducing global endemic and pandemic risk. He is a lead contributor to the Far-UVC Blueprint, which outlines the current state of the field and key steps needed to scale far-UVC safely and effectively to reduce airborne disease transmission.

James previously served as a specialist on Colorado’s Communicable Disease Training Team, where he developed and delivered training on high-consequence pathogens including measles, viral hemorrhagic fevers, and avian influenza. His past experience spans wastewater pathogen monitoring, infectious disease modeling, contact tracing, and university biosafety. Earlier in his career, James worked in judgment and decision-making psychology and served in the United States Marine Corps.

James holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Master of Public Health in epidemiology from the Colorado School of Public Health.

Sabah Ghulamali is the Government Affairs Director at Blueprint Biosecurity, bringing a decade of public health and biosecurity policy experience. She was previously a Senior Advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services, covering policies related to biosecurity and biosafety, biomedical research and development, public health, and more. Prior to that, Sabah was a professional staffer on the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee, focusing on legislative authorities for CDC, ASPR, NIH, and ARPA-H. During her tenure on HELP, Sabah worked on multiple significant pieces of bipartisan legislation, including the PREVENT Pandemics Act, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act of 2019, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Response Act, and the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. Prior to her time on the Hill, Sabah was at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, crafting policy solutions for issues ranging from infectious disease outbreaks to high-consequence pathogens to the opioid overdose epidemic. 

Sabah received a bachelor’s degree in gender studies from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and a Master of Public Health from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.

Adam Goff is Senior Policy Advisor at Blueprint Biosecurity, where he leads our PPE team’s policy advocacy work. He comes to Blueprint with a decade of experience advancing technologies that improve the resiliency of humanity.

Before Blueprint Biosecurity, Adam was the senior vice president of strategy at 8 Rivers, a firm which invents and commercializes sustainable infrastructure technology, including clean power, clean hydrogen, and carbon removal. He also was previously the chief of staff at ClearPath Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to reduce global energy emissions by accelerating American innovation.

Adam has an environmental studies degree from Yale University. He is based in Washington, D.C.

Aman Patel is the Special Projects Lead at Blueprint Biosecurity, where he helps the team explore promising interventions in transmission suppression. He was previously the Deputy Director on Blueprint Bio’s PPE team, helping to implement strategies to improve innovation, supply, and adoption of infectious disease personal protective equipment.

His past experience includes designing policy incentives for stockpiling innovative PPE, researching cost-effective biosurveillance techniques, and analyzing how the US government can drive innovation in pandemic preparedness technologies. He has also previously published research on bioethics and climate biogeochemistry.

Aman has a bachelor’s degree in computational neuroscience from the University of Southern California.

Lesley Marling is the Senior Operations Manager at Blueprint Biosecurity, with over a decade of experience building systems that help mission-driven teams thrive. She has led hiring, developed inclusive people practices, and created day-to-day operations that keep things running smoothly. Before joining Blueprint, she supported staff and streamlined operations as Vice President at ComplianceDashboard. She has also held administrative and operations roles at Mission Asset Fund, Academy for Precision Learning, and Rapha International. Lesley is passionate about creating environments where people feel valued and supported to do their best work.

Lesley received a Bachelor’s in Sociology from Missouri Southern State University and a Masters of Public Administration, Non-profit Management from Indiana University.

Alice Fine is the Operations and Events Associate at Blueprint Biosecurity, where she provides administrative support across the organization and oversees event planning and execution.

Previously, Alice was part of the People Operations team at Mercy For Animals, helping to create and maintain a supportive and rewarding work environment while ensuring compliance across two countries and numerous states. Throughout her work, Alice has focused on creating innovative and thorough policies and procedures that are sensitive to the needs and priorities of the team.

Alice received a bachelor’s degree in advocacy and social change from the Loyola University Chicago School of Communication.