Director, Program in Innate Immunity;
Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research Chair III
Dr. Fitzgerald is Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. She is Vice Provost for Basic Science Research and also holds leadership roles in the Department of Medicine serving as Executive Vice Chair of the Department and Chief of the Division of Innate Immunity. Dr. Fitzgerald is an internationally recognized investigator whose research is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms driving inflammation in Infectious and inflammatory diseases.
Dr. Fitzgerald received her B.Sc. in Biochemistry in 1995 from University College Cork, Ireland and her PhD in Biochemistry in 1999 from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. After a post-doctoral fellowship at Trinity College Dublin, she joined UMass Chan and has remained at Umass Chan rising through the ranks to a tenured Professor as well as her leadership roles.
Dr. Fitzgerald is an elected member of the Royal Irish Academy, the National Academy of Sciences (USA), the National Academy of Medicine (USA) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as an elected fellow of the American Society of Microbiology. She is the recipient of several awards including the Meritorious Career Award (from the American Association of Immunology), the Saint Patrick’s Day Medal (from the Irish Government and Science Foundation Ireland) and the Milstein Award for Excellence in Interferon and Cytokine research (from the International Cytokine and Interferon Society), amongst others.
She has extensive service both locally at UMass Chan as well as nationally including service on local and national advisory boards (e.g., NIAID Board of Scientific Councillors (2019-2024), the Cancer Research Institute and the Smith Odyssey Foundation). She was also the recent past President of the International Cytokine and Interferon Society. In addition, she serves on the scientific advisory board of a number of biotechs and Pharma.