Saskia Popescu is a policy researcher at RAND. Dedicated to strengthening global health security and biopreparedness, she is an epidemiologist with experience in outbreak investigation, capacity building, and frontline pandemic response. Her research focuses on the intersection of science, security, and policy, working to enhance biosecurity and resilience by identifying and addressing key vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure and private industry. Popescu's scope of expertise ranges from disease transmission dynamics to biosurveillance, with much of her work focused on biodefense strategy and the barriers to implementation and bolstering biopreparedness, including the political economy of biopreparedness, and the development of DURC/GoF policies. Prior to joining RAND, Popescu was a senior fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks, where she helped lead projects addressing pandemic preparedness, the AI/biosecurity nexus, and open-source information to bolster biodefense and transparency within the Biological Weapons and Toxins Convention.
She previously oversaw epidemiological and global health response at Netflix and served as a WHO consultant on COVID-19 infection prevention. From 2011–2020, Popescu worked in frontline outbreak response and biopreparedness within hospitals, addressing nosocomial infections and high-consequence disease response. Her work focuses on converging risks such as AMR and conflict, and vulnerabilities to biological threats. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Assistant Editor of Vaccine, and Co-Lead Editor of the APIC text. Popescu holds an M.P.H., M.A., and Ph.D. in biodefense from George Mason University.
Ph.D. in biodefense, international relations, George Mason University; M.A. in international security studies, University of Arizona; M.P.H. in epidemiology, University of Arizona
CEO, Global Health Security Network; Assistant Professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Division of Epidemiology & Public Health
