The CDC Leaders

"The human race is governed by its imagination."

- Napoleon

Bradley Perkins, MD, MBA (CAPT, USPHS)

Chief, Office of Strategy and Innovation

Dr. Perkins is CDC’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, and Chief, Office of Strategy and Innovation (OSI), Office of the Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Dr. Perkins has been a key leader in design and implementation of changes in CDC’s strategies and operations since 2003. Dr. Perkins has played a principal role in CDC's strategic imperatives, organizational redesign, and enterprisewide Health Protection Goals. Leading OSI, Dr. Perkins is a catalyst for CDC’s efforts to influence health system transformation in ways that emphasize health protection and health equity through policy interventions and multisector and public engagements, focusing on relationships with business, and understanding public demand for health. He has created innovative collaborations in areas of rapid health system change including personal health records, retail-based health clinics, and workforce health efforts.

Dr. Perkins received his BA degree in microbiology and M.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and his MBA from Emory University. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and served as Chief Medical Resident at the Houston VA Medical Center.

Dr. Perkins joined CDC in 1989 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, and he served as Chief of the Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch, and Associate Director for Bioterrorism, in the Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases. He played critical roles in establishing CDC’s Laboratory Response Network and Strategic National Stockpile prior to 9/11 and the following anthrax attacks. In 2001, he led CDC’s investigation of the index anthrax cases in Florida, and he was CDC’s overall technical lead for response to the anthrax attacks. Dr. Perkins has worked as a consultant in more than 25 different countries on meningitis, epidemic-prone diseases, and other emerging infectious diseases. Dr. Perkins received an exceptional capability promotion to the rank of CAPT in the US Public Health Service in 1997, and in 2003 he was tenured in the Research Officer Group. Dr. Perkins has published more than 120 scientific articles and book chapters, and he has received numerous awards in recognition of scientific contributions in public health.