Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Medical epidemiologist with postdoctoral training in infectious diseases, epidemiology, preventive medicine and pediatrics. Track record of success domestically, as well as in multiple countries in South America, Africa, Southeast Asia and Western Pacific, implementing complex pandemic preparedness and epidemic response programs, leading and mentoring multidisciplinary teams investigating outbreaks of emerging infections, and responding to natural disasters and refugee crises. First hand experience establishing trust and cooperation while serving as a technical advisor to senior Ministry of Health officials in collaboration with international agencies promoting scientific methods, ethics and use of timely, accurate data for decision making. Completed U.S. CDC's elite epidemiology training program for disease detectives (i.e., Epidemic Intelligence Service), and Preventive Medicine Residency. In close collaboration with CDC, WHO, PAHO, EMRO, successfully designed and implemented multiple multi-million dollar activities funded by USAID, CDC and World Bank. Developed sustainable, practical postdoctoral epidemiology training in Ministries of Health, establishing Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETPs) while assigned by CDC to Egypt (1993–2000) and Brazil (2000-2007). Provided TA to Sudan, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland, Jordan, Gaza and West Bank. In 2007, appointed as the Chief, Division of Communicable Disease Control (DCDC) by the Governor of California. Provided strategic vision and leadership for >500 staff in six branches and two state reference laboratories. Served as incident manager for state response to influenza A/H1N1 pandemic in 2009., and implemented pandemic preparedness and related trainings. From 2009-2015, served as senior infectious disease/public health advisor to the five year $166 million RESPOND project and follow-on Preparedness & Response projects in the Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) program in East & Central Africa, and in Southeast Asia regional EPT offices. Worked successfully with health officials in Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, DRC (Congo), Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia to address emerging pandemic risk in "hot zone" regions. From 2016–2018, served as Project Director of $3 million project to upgrade the technical and instructional design content of the CDC curriculum for epidemiology and biostatistics, made available to 90+ country members of TEPHINET.org . Worked in Western Samoa on pandemic preparedness in 2019, and from 2020 to 2021 worked in Hawai'i with HDOH on COVID-19 surge response.
Deployed by CDC Foundation to provide technical assistance to Hawaii state's Department of Health (HDOH) on the topics of epidemiology, infection prevention and control, COVID-19 diagnostic testing, COVID-19 outpatient therapeutics, and antimicrobial resistance/multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs). Hired by the HDOH's Disease Outbreak Control Division (DOCD) HDOH/DOCD as Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) physician, providing supervision for health professionals staffing HAI section of DOCD.
Senior Technical Advisor for pandemic preparedness project in South Pacific region with objective to develop a Pandemic Emergency Response Plan (PERP) based on a whole-of-government and in support of Global Health Security approach. National PERP Task Force established at Office of the Prime Minister, led by the Ministry of Health and National Disaster Management Office. Tabletop exercise and full field simulation exercise planned in collaboration with World Health Organization (WHO), major donors, civil society organizations and the private sector — utilizing Incident Command Structure, Emergency Operations Center (EOC), designed to further implementation of International Health Regulations (IHR, 2005) and improve Global Health Security.
Served for 2 years as Director of a U.S. CDC-funded project supervising a remote team of 15 postdoctoral epidemiology subject matter experts from the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Italy and a team of instructional designers. Team reviewed >2,000 existing CDC epidemiology and biostatistics training documents, and designed upgraded materials for national-, provincial-, and district-level training. The project developed ~480 high-quality instructor guides, PowerPoint lectures, exercises, pre- and post-tests, mentor guides, and case studies. After official approvals, materials will be available online by CDC. Coursework was developed in the following domains: epidemiology; public health biostatistics; surveys and sample size calculations; field epidemiology; outbreak investigations; disease surveillance systems; non-communicable diseases; health informatics; computerized data entry, analysis and interpretation; leadership; management; and communications, and emergency preparedness. among other topics. Materials will be utilized to improve the knowledge, skills and competencies of health staff responsible for emergency preparedness, notifiable disease reporting, disease surveillance and response systems, and teamwork related to disease prevention and control activities.