Dr Mary Wang is Programme Director at Rare Diseases International (RDI) where she is leading initiatives on access to diagnosis and essential therapies, and oversees RDI’s collaboration with the World Health Organization. Mary has 17 years of experience in biomedical research, funding, infrastructure, and policy in rare diseases. Prior to joining RDI, Mary worked at Fondazione Telethon Italy and managed international activities, advocated for research in global consortia including the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) and in the executive committee of International Consortium for Personalised Medicine (ICPerMed). Mary worked on European Commission funded projects (EJP RD, RD-Connect), leading on creation of rare disease biobank network, flagship tools for data-sharing, training for scientists and patients. At Telethon she also supported establishment of multi-million funding programmes, managed peer-review of research grants on inherited immunological and blood disorders. Mary received her PhD from University College London, UK. Mary lives in Italy.