Trump administration official Mark Kevin Lloyd joins Gavi board

Gavi’s board has approved Trump administration nominee Mark Kevin Lloyd to join its 28-member body. Lloyd is assistant to the administrator for the Bureau of Conflict Prevention and Stabilization and assistant to the administrator for global health at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he’s tasked with leading the agency’s global health programs. Under the Biden administration, Dr. Atul Gawande held the Gavi board seat while also serving as USAID assistant to the administrator for global health. Lloyd’s addition to the board comes at a time when there has been widespread uncertainty around the status of U.S. funding to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — the leading international organization tasked with providing vaccines to lower-income countries that has helped vaccinate more than half the world’s children against infectious diseases. The U.S. government accounts for 13% of Gavi's funding, making it the organization's third-largest contributor. Gavi is in the midst of its replenishment cycle for its work from 2026 through 2030 and will host a high-level pledging summit this month in Brussels. Last year, the Biden administration pledged at least $1.58 billion for this new funding cycle. Typically, when the U.S. pledges money to the organization, the U.S. Congress must then appropriate funds each year in the budget. Gavi received a $300 million payment from the U.S. government in December. This year, Congress also approved an additional $300 million for Gavi in the fiscal year 2025 funding bill. But in March, amid the broader dismantling of USAID, the Trump administration distributed a spreadsheet to members of Congress that listed the termination of a $2.6 billion award to Gavi from 2022 through 2030, although the organization told Devex at the time that it had not received a termination notice from the U.S. government. The Trump administration's addition of a board member could be perceived as a sign for future U.S. engagement, and possibly future funding disbursements, to the organization. But a justification document accompanying U.S. President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget request noted that it “does not include funding for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI), a Swiss NGO which reports a reserve of over $7.0 billion in its most recent statutory financial statements.” There are five seats on the board reserved for government donor countries, of which Lloyd now holds one. Board members provide input into the development of Gavi’s policies and the management of its operations. This is Lloyd’s second time serving under Trump. During his first term, Lloyd worked as the USAID senior adviser for international religious freedom. At the time, seven Democratic members of Congress wrote to then-USAID Acting Administrator John Barsa that Lloyd “demonstrated a historical pattern of prejudice against the Islamic faith and the Muslim population.” Some of Lloyd’s recent social media posts have focused on criticisms of abortion, opposition to LGBTQ+ rights, support for increasing deportations of “illegal aliens,” and a comparison of U.S. Democrats to Nazis. CNN reported that in 2010, Lloyd said an armed revolution could happen if the tea party movement didn’t win elections. “If it isn’t the ballot, at some point, it will be a bullet,” he said. Prior to this most recent USAID appointment, Lloyd worked as the director of field operation for the libertarian advocacy group Americans for Limited Government from 2021 to 2024, which says on its website that it’s “fighting to reduce the size and scope of government, protecting individuals rights, promoting federalism, and rolling back the tyranny of the administrative state.” Lloyd served from 2017 to 2020 as the national field director for The New American Populist, a political action committee, or Super PAC, which are groups that spend money to influence federal elections. He was also the director for Trump’s 2016 campaign in Virginia. Update, June 4, 2025: This piece has been updated to include details from a budget justification document.