Professor and Associate Vice President for Clinical and Translational Research, WVU, and Director, West Virginia Clinical & Translational Science Institute
By Jackie Whetzel
Sally Hodder, M.D., is an infectious disease physician who has spent most of her career focusing on HIV treatment and prevention.
Hodder graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Mount Holyoke College in 1976 and earned a medical degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (CWRUSOM) in 1980, during which time her research interest was piqued.
“As a medical student in Cleveland, I was surrounded by many of the giants of 20th century infectious diseases,” she recalls. “Among them was Dr. Fred Robbins—CWRUSOM dean and winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for growing the polio virus, a necessary step to the later vaccine.”
After medical school, Hodder interned at the University of California San Francisco, where she saw patients with a new disease—later named AIDS—that was not reported until near the end of her internship. Hodder also witnessed the emergence of HIV/AIDS in Africa, where she spent time working on a research project.
“It is no surprise that HIV/AIDS has defined much of my career,” she says. “In those early years of the HIV epidemic, nothing was known about how best to treat HIV. Research provided solutions that took HIV from being a death sentence to a manageable chronic disease.”
Hodder later joined the faculty at CWRUSOM. After 10 years, she left Cleveland when her spouse accepted a professional opportunity on the East Coast. The move offered new opportunities for Hodder as well, and she joined Bristol Myers Squibb in 2000 and was named vice president of virology medical affairs in 2002, overseeing more than 100 worldwide trials.
“It was an exciting time in HIV research, as better tolerated drugs that controlled HIV were being developed, including the first once daily single tablet regimen,” she says.
Hodder left Bristol Myers Squibb in 2006 to build an HIV program at Rutgers University. At the time, Newark, NJ, had the highest proportion of women among persons living with HIV in the U.S. Under Hodder’s leadership, the program received National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for HIV prevention and treatment trials. As there was limited understanding of HIV incidence among American women, Hodder was funded to lead an NIH-supported study of HIV among 2,099 participants.
While her work there was impactful, she was recruited by West Virginia University (WVU) in 2014 to direct the West Virginia Clinical & Translational Science Institute (WVCTSI), the mission of which is to build research infrastructure that addresses health disparities in the Mountain State. Today, Hodder is applying her expertise to help combat the coronavirus pandemic. In September, she was awarded $1.5 million by the NIH to lead an eight-state consortium in the National COVID Cohort Collaborative, a national database that will help better understand COVID-19.
“Access to this data will enable us to answer questions that directly relate to our West Virginia population,” says Hodder. “As we learn more about this new virus, having current and comprehensive data will be an invaluable tool.”
Hodder was also awarded $4.7 million in partnership with the West Virginia National Guard, West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources and Partnership of African American Churches to expand COVID-19 testing. Additionally, multiple NIH clinical trials are being brought to West Virginia, providing West Virginians opportunities to participate in cutting-edge research.
“Rural populations have historically been underrepresented in clinical trials, which means that regional differences in response may be missed,” says Hodder. “Having lived through the HIV epidemic when all my AIDS patients were dying and seeing that through research, that death sentence has been transformed into an easily treated chronic disease, I have no doubt that through research and effective communication of results, we will bring COVID-19 under control.”
While there is no question that Hodder is an asset in her current role, there are still many things she wants to accomplish.
“A critically important area is harm reduction and HIV prevention among women who inject drugs,” she says. “Women with substance use disorders deserve more voice so as to inform successful programs to enable their recovery.”
Having grown up in rural Ohio, Hodder has loved returning to Appalachia for its wonderful people and natural beauty.
A self-described relentless optimist, Hodder loves working with others—
especially those committed to excellence. Her intrepidity of character and commitment to improving the health outcomes of West Virginians exemplify the best qualities of the medical profession and reverberate throughout the country in a time when optimists such as herself are needed more than ever.
