Ms. Valerie Wilson is an Immunologist and public health professional who has provided leadership and technical advisory services to Ministries of Health, private and public sector laboratories and staff in 23 countries within the Caribbean region, through her work as Laboratory Manager and later as Project Manager for the European Union funded Laboratory Strengthening Project at the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC/PAHO/WHO) from 1990 to 2007, and from 2008 to present at the Caribbean Med Labs Foundation (CMLF).

She is currently Director of the non-governmental organization, Caribbean Med Labs Foundation (CMLF) which was established in 2008 to support lab strengthening within the Caribbean region.

Ms. Wilson has a Masters degree in Immunology and a Masters in Business Administration. She has extensive experience in the areas of public health laboratory reference services, laboratory management, quality improvement and strategic management.

She led the initiative to raise awareness of governments and laboratories in the Caribbean region with respect to the need for medical laboratory standards and quality management systems, and for regulation of medical laboratories. As a direct result of her work, the Caribbean region adopted the international Standard (ISO 15189) for medical laboratories in 2005. She led the development of a framework for national laboratory policy that was endorsed by Ministers of Health in 2014 and facilitated the development of national laboratory policies and strategic plans for laboratory services in several Caribbean countries.

She played a key role in supporting CARICOM in her capacity as Consultant, in the design and development of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA). Under her leadership, CMLF has partnered with the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (CARICOM PANCAP) in implementing the laboratory component of the Global Fund Round 9 Grant for strengthening of HIV/AIDS national and regional laboratory networks within the Caribbean region from 2011 to 2015 and with the OECS GF grant for HIV and TB Elimination (2016-2019).

Ms. Wilson has been involved in several successful collaborative partnerships with international institutions, including the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC); the Michener Institute, Canada, the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), USA, and the European Union in support of improving laboratory services. She is currently a member of the PAHO Regional Validation Committee for Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission (EMTCT) and the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on In-Vitro Diagnostics (SAGE-IVD).