Shannon Allen Dr. Shannon Allen is a Health Science Specialist within the Research Division of the Office of HIV and AIDS at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Shannon is the technical lead for one of the largest Microbicide programs, MATRIX (Microbicide R&D to Advance HIV Prevention Technologies through Responsive Innovation and eXcellence), ever awarded which is designed to accelerate research and development of innovative biomedical HIV prevention technologies that women can use to protect themselves. Prior to this role, she was a Senior Technical Lead for development of long-acting HIV products at USAID. Before that, she served as an HIV/AIDS Public Health Prevention Advisor at the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator and Health Diplomacy where she assumed an intermediary role building bridges between biomedical HIV prevention research and HIV prevention public health programs. Shannon is also a trained Virologist and obtained her PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from Northwestern University and holds other degrees including a Masters in Applied Molecular Physiology and a Bachelors in Pre-Med/Biology.