Maria Thacker Goethe, Board Member

Maria Thacker Goethe is the founding CEO of The Center for Global Health Innovation (CGHI), an Atlanta-based organization formed in 2020 from the merger of Georgia’s major global health and life sciences organizations. CGHI was established as an impartial, leading organizer of the global health, life sciences and health technology community which embraces cross-sector collaboration and speaks with a collective voice. Maria is also the president and CEO of Georgia Bio, a role she has held since Feb. 2019, after spending more than 12 years actively building the organization into one of the state’s top bioscience and MedTech

associations.

Under her leadership, the Georgia Global Health Alliance, BioEd Institute and Global Health Crisis Coordination Center were established and now reside within CGHI.

Prior to Georgia Bio, Maria participated in an ORISE fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in environmental investigations, working closely with the National Center of Environmental Health in Chemical Demilitarization. Maria serves on the board of the CJD Foundation, Southeast Life Sciences Association, and KSU Research Foundation, Greater Atlanta Red Cross, and as Chair for the Council of State Bioscience Associations. Most recently, she was

named to Georgia Trend magazine’s 2022 Georgia 500 List, 2023, 2022 and 2021 “100 Most Influential Georgians” list, 2022 Power 100 and a top visionary by Atlanta Business Chronicle, and is a 2022 graduate of the Leadership Atlanta program. Additionally, Maria has volunteered for 11 years with the Junior League

of Atlanta.

Maria holds a master’s in public health from Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Sweet Briar College. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, Patrick, and daughter Cecilia.

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