Smith School Appoints Wendy Sanhai as Visiting Professor and Outreach Ambassador

Wendy Sanhai, PhD, MBA, and a member of the Smith School Advisory Board, has been appointed Visiting Professor of Practice in the Department of Management and Organization at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. She will also take on the role of Smith’s Outreach Ambassador, where she will lead strategic initiatives with private industry, Federal and State agencies, and other external stakeholders. In this capacity, she will collaborate with faculty across the Smith School and other departments at the University of Maryland (UMD) to promote research, consulting engagements, experiential learning, career opportunities for students, and Executive Education programs. Her focus will be on the life sciences, a field in which she is considered a leading authority.

Sanhai has held senior positions in academia, the Department of Health and Human Services, and private industry. As the former Senior Scientific Advisor in the Office of the Commissioner at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), she developed and managed strategic programs to advance science and bridge gaps in public health and patient care. At the National Institutes of Health (NIH), she worked as a Technology Licensing Specialist and Patent Advisor, overseeing business development, securing intellectual property protection, and facilitating partnerships to promote medical product research and commercialization. As Director of Public-Private Partnerships at the Foundation for NIH, she led collaborations with industry and external partners to support NIH’s mission.

In her role as Senior Director at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Sanhai worked across therapeutic areas and international business units to drive drug development and organizational goals. Most recently, at Deloitte Consulting LLC, she advised senior leaders across NIH, FDA, the Department of Defense, the Veterans Health Administration, and Fortune 500 companies in Life Sciences and Healthcare. There, she leveraged over 25 years of experience to lead teams in developing innovative solutions and operational efficiencies, particularly in public/global health, medical product development, and regulatory strategies.

Sanhai holds a PhD in clinical biochemistry from the State University of New York at Buffalo, an MBA from the University of Maryland, and a BS from the University of Florida.