William R. Steiger

William Raymond Steiger (born 1969 in Arlington, Virginia) was Special Assistant to the Secretary for International Affairs and the Director of the Office of Global Health Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) during the George W. Bush Administration, with a portfolio that included HIV/AIDS, malaria, avian flu and pandemic-influenza preparedness. During his tenure in the Bush Administration, Steiger was involved in several controversies surrounding the politicization of science.

Steiger is the son of the late Congressman William A. Steiger (a Republican who represented the 6th District of Wisconsin) and the late Janet Dempsey Steiger, former Chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and the godson of former President George H.W. Bush. Steiger graduated cum laude in 1987 from the college preparatory St. Albans School for Boys in Washington, D.C. He graduated from Yale College summa cum laude with a degree in History in 1991. He earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in Latin American History at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1995-96, Steiger was a Luce Scholar in the Philippines; he taught Latin American History at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, and the Ateneo de Manila University.

During a webcast, panel discussion at the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center in January 2017, Steiger discusses ways the Trump administration can contribute to pandemic preparedness, global health security, and domestic readiness and resilience. On the topic of data sharing, Steiger credits Indonesia’s government for their instructive negotiations in 2007 after Indonesia stop sharing flu viruses while offering legitimate points why the WHO flu network was not set up for the benefit of developing countries in terms of capacity building around research and vaccine development. In the webcast, Steiger goes on to say the private sector has a role to play in data sharing and gives the example of Peter Bogner, the founder of the GISAID Initiative. He set up an academic network to share influenza data using private monies. The effort was not driven by government nor WHO, yet it became very helpful over time, Steiger says.

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