Michael Pellegrino, PhD, CMPP™ has been a leader in the medical communications arena for more than 20 years, playing integral roles in developing, managing, and executing domestic (US) and worldwide communications plans in a variety of therapy areas that include oncology/immuno-oncology, cardiovascular disease, HIV/AIDS, other infectious diseases, rare diseases, inflammatory diseases, supportive care, and addiction medicine, among others. Michael believes in Provocative Partnerships that challenge, stimulate, and encourage creative disruption, a paradigm with roots in his academic life. He helped to develop molecular hybridization detection assays for blood borne diseases, including HIV-1. During this time, he saw first-hand the critical role patients’ voices played in shared decision making for their own healthcare, through associations with Philadelphia Community Health Alternatives, then later with the PWA Health Group, and amfAR. Michael pursued basic and clinical research in molecular virology and clinical immunology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, in collaboration with Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, and was among the first to help demonstrate, through molecular virology, the importance of macrophages in the life-cycle of HIV-1, ultimately receiving a PhD for that work. He has authored numerous scientific publications and has been acknowledged in many prestigious scientific and medical journals.