Joanne Turner, PhD
Joanne Turner, PhD, is the chief scientific officer at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital. She is also an Elizabeth M. and Richard M. Ross Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research. 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).
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 bachelor of science in immunology and biochemistry at King’s College, University of London, and completed her doctorate 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.
