Kathryn M. Edwards, MD, the Sarah H. Sell and Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Pediatrics, has led many of the pivotal clinical trials of vaccines licensed in the past several decades and has played a major role in their implementation. She graduated from the University of Iowa College of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency and infectious disease fellowship at Northwestern University and her postdoctoral training in Immunology at Rush Medical School in Chicago. Dr. Edwards joined the Vanderbilt Vaccine Program in 1980 and directed it for many years. She has served on multiple CDC, NIH, FDA, WHO, and IDSA committees. In 2006, she received the IDSA Mentor Award for her exceptional mentoring and in 2014 received the Maureen Andrews Mentoring Award from the Society for Pediatric Research. In 2008 she was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, in 2018 she was awarded the Maxwell Finland award for Scientific Accomplishments, and in 2019 she received the Frank Morriss Leadership Award in Pediatrics.