Lori Heise is a well-known advocate and policy expert in the field of women's health and HIV. As GCM's Director, Lori is responsible for overall management, strategic vision, and fundraising. She also provides intellectual leadership for the Campaign's program on ethics and public policy. From 1994 to 2000, Heise co-directed the Centre for Health and Gender Equity and co-convened Women's Health Advocates on Microbicides, an international consortium of women's health groups dedicated to influencing the Population Council’s microbicide development programme.

In 1998, she helped launch the Global Campaign for Microbicides. In 2002, she became its full time director and moved the Campaign to PATH. She has served as an expert advisor to the World Health Organization, the Pan-American Health Organization, the World Bank, and the US National Institutes of Health. She has published widely in academic journals, including the British Medical Journal, Social Science and Medicine; AIDS; Studies in Family Planning, and the Lancet.

Lori’s work as one of the primary global strategists behind efforts to increase research into topical microbicides earned her the American Social Health Association’s distinguished President’s Award for Excellence in Advocacy in 2001. In 2003, she was recognised by Ms. Magazine as one of their “50 women who made a difference” due to her leadership on woman-controlled HIV prevention. Most recently, she received the Omololu Falobi Award for Excellence in HIV Prevention Research Community Advocacy from her peers at the Microbicides 2008 conference.