April 21, 2000
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Oregon Public Health Official Named CDC Deputy Director for Science

CDC announced today the appointment of David W. Fleming, M.D., to be Deputy Director for Science and Public Health for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Fleming is currently the director of the Center for Disease Prevention and Epidemiology, Oregon Health Division.

"Dr. Fleming is a national leader in public health and has done superb work in Oregon," said CDC Director Jeffrey P. Koplan, M.D., M.P.H. "He will bring to our leadership team fourteen years of state health department experience and perspective."

The Deputy Director for Science and Public Health reports directly to the CDC Director, advising him on matters of science and public health. The position provides overall leadership and direction for the development and promotion of scientific integrity, quality assurance, and the rapid dissemination of scientific innovations, technology, and information with the ultimate goal of enhancing CDC’s mission and improving public health. Fleming will assume the post in early June.

CDC is the nation’s disease prevention organization, protecting people’s health and safety, providing credible information to enhance health decisions, and improving health through strong partnerships. The agency includes 11 institutes, centers and offices, with nearly 7,000 employees.

Fleming, 45, earned his medical degree from State University of New York Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse in 1979, and earned his B.S. in biology from State University of New York at Albany in 1975. He served his internship and internal medicine residency at the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center in Portland. He began his career as a CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in the National Center for Infectious Diseases and then as a Preventive Medicine Resident in the Office of Epidemiology, New Mexico Department of Health and Environment.

In 1986 Fleming began his role as State Epidemiologist with the Oregon Health Division where he has had responsibility for the epidemiologic and scientific integrity of the Division’s public health programs. He has formulated national policies and recommendations while serving on CDC’s Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and Community Preventive Services Task Force. He also has served on Institute of Medicine committees.

Fleming has served as President of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. He has authored and co-authored 72 publications of which six have been recognized by top CDC awards. Fleming recently received the Oregon Department of Human Services Quality Achievement award for his work in creating Oregon’s tobacco prevention program.

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