Leah Cowen is Vice-President, Research and Innovation, and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Toronto, Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics, co-Director of the CIFAR Fungal Kingdom: Threats & Opportunities program, and co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Bright Angel Therapeutics, a company focused on development of novel antifungals. She has received a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award, Grand Challenges Canada Star in Global Health Award, E.W.R. Steacie Award, and Canada Research Chair in Microbial Genomics & Infectious Disease. She is an elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, American Academy of Microbiology, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her laboratory takes an interdisciplinary approach to understand how fungi cause human disease and evolve resistance to antifungal drugs, leveraging fundamental insights to advance development of new strategies to treat life-threatening infectious disease.