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GA4GH Inc. welcomes four new Board Members
27 Feb 2025
Krystal Tsosie, David Glazer, Arcadi Navarro, and Patrick Tan have been appointed to the Board of Directors of GA4GH, Inc. to help drive the strategic mission of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health.
By Jaclyn Estrin, GA4GH Science Writer
The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) is pleased to welcome Krystal Tsosie (Arizona State University), David Glazer (Verily), Arcadi Navarro (Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Centre de Regulació Genòmica [Center for Genomic Regulation]), and Patrick Tan (Precision Health Research Singapore) to the Board of Directors of GA4GH, Inc.
GA4GH, Inc., a not-for-profit organisation incorporated in Canada, is the legal entity of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health. Governed by a Board of Directors, GA4GH, Inc. establishes an organisational structure to guide the strategic direction of GA4GH.
Tsosie, Glazer, Navarro, and Tan join nine existing Directors on the Board. Directors serve for at least a three-year renewable term, for a maximum of nine years. They bring a diversity of backgrounds, experience, and expertise to the leadership team of GA4GH. The Board of Directors plays a crucial role in guiding GA4GH to achieve its mission of accelerating progress in human health by establishing a shared global approach to responsible, broad, and democratised use of genomic and related health data.
Please join the GA4GH community in welcoming Tsosie, Glazer, Navarro, and Tan to the Board. Together, they will drive forward the goals of GA4GH and amplify the benefits of genomic advancements across the globe.
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Krystal Tsosie is an Indigenous (Diné/Navajo Nation) geneticist-bioethicist, Assistant Professor at Arizona State University’s (ASU) School of Life Sciences, and Associate Director of the ASU Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center. She is a strong champion for the sovereignty of Indigenous genomic data and co-founded the Native BioData Consortium, the first Indigenous-led biobank in the United States. With a research background in cancer biology and genetic epidemiology, Tsosie’s current research focuses include Indigenous population genetics, data ethics, and building Tribally-led digital data infrastructures. Her aims are to empower Indigenous communities to improve health outcomes, operationalise Indigenous data governance digitally, and transform how we think about equity in genomics, precision medicine, and data science.
“Responsible, respectful, and ethical sharing of data sourced from global Indigenous peoples entails centring community benefit throughout digital and policy frameworks. I am excited to join GA4GH’s Board leadership to help actualise genomic health data futures that uplift all.” — Krystal Tsosie |
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David Glazer is the Chief Technology Officer for Verily Workbench, a secure research environment for governing and analysing multimodal biomedical data. He is a Principal Investigator for the Data and Research Center, Steering Committee member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) All of Us Research Program, and served on the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director, co-chairing the Artificial Intelligence Working Group. Glazer previously worked at Google, where he founded the Google Genomics team. Prior to joining Google in 2006, he successfully started two companies: Eloquent in 1995 (IPO 2000), which used rich media to power business communications, and Verity in 1988 (IPO 1995), which did full-text search. Glazer is a member of the GA4GH Strategic Leadership Committee and formerly served as Co-Lead of the Cloud Work Stream.
“I have been inspired by the GA4GH vision of improving global health by accelerating global collaboration on global data for over a decade, and I am excited to take on this new role to help realise that vision. Biomedical research continues to generate more data in more modalities on more people from more backgrounds, increasing the opportunity and urgency of ‘connecting the dots’ from data to insights.” — David Glazer |
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Arcadi Navarro is a Professor of Genetics in the Department of Medicine and Life Sciences at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), where he leads a team researching evolutionary genomics. He is also the Director of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation and its Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center, in addition to co-directing the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA) — which offers a platform for storing and sharing genetic, phenotypic, and clinical data to advance biomedical research — at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG). His research interests include the analysis of genomic diversity and how it impacts disease susceptibility, aging, and biodiversity. Within his collective roles, Navarro has been a leading voice for collaboration in genomic research and advancement of international genomic data sharing.
“Collaboration is the key to advancing science — fostering both quality and impact, and ultimately, driving greater progress. I’m delighted to see GA4GH embracing this mission, and I’m eager to contribute and learn as much as I can along the way!” — Arcadi Navarro |
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Patrick Tan is the Executive Director of PRECISE (Precision Health Research Singapore), Senior Vice Dean (Research) at Duke-NUS (National University of Singapore) Medical School, and Chief Scientific Officer at the Genome Institute of Singapore, Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR). At PRECISE, Tan oversees the implementation of Singapore’s Precision Medicine Strategy, a three-phase initiative seeking to harness the Asian genome for research insights, healthcare innovations, and economic development. Tan is also an internationally respected cancer researcher, with interests covering the genomics and epigenomics of stomach cancers, as well as cancers endemic to Asian populations. Tan is involved in several GA4GH initiatives, including consensus guidelines for standardised whole-genome sequencing (WGS) quality control metrics and data sharing initiatives such as Federated gnomAD. “It’s an absolute privilege to join the GA4GH Board of Directors. As Singapore is a small country, international linkages are vital to ensure that our local genomics community learns from international best practices and that our datasets are interoperable with other global initiatives. I’m excited to participate in this effort to advance genomics globally.” — Patrick Tan |
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