The CDC Leaders

"To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful."

- Edward R. Murrow

Jim Seligman, MS

Chief Information Officer

As Chief Information Officer since June 1999, James Seligman provides leadership for the agency´s overall information technology (IT) program, including IT architecture; IT capital investment management, policy and standards development; information security; IT workforce development; and other enterprise activities. Mr. Seligman also oversees the Procurement and Grants Office, the Management Analysis & Services Office, the Information Resources Management Office and the Information Technology Services Office—organizations employing about 500 people and representing over $100 million in direct budget authority.

Among his top priorities is the Public Health Information Network (PHIN), which is intended to bring about the integration of many of CDC´s information systems and transform the ways the agency interacts with its government and non-government public health and healthcare partners. One of the major components of PHIN is BioSense, which is a high priority of the Bush Administration and represents the single largest increase in IT spending CDC has ever experienced. Other federal agencies are also a part of BioSense, including the Department of Defense, Veterans Administration hospitals, and in the future, the Department of Homeland Security.

Mr. Seligman came to CDC as a Quarantine Inspector based at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City in 1977 following his undergraduate and graduate work at the State University of New York at Stoneybrook. He worked in Quarantine for five years, during which time he was sent to Puerto Rico to head up the Quarantine Office there, focusing predominantly on cruise-ship inspections. He then worked for two years in CDC´s Washington office. Following that, he spent nine years in the Information Resource Management Office as deputy director and then served five years as director.

He and his wife of 26 years, Debra, have two sons.