The CDC Leaders

“To the person who does not know where he wants to go there is no favorable wind.”

—Seneca

Carlton Duncan, MSPH

Deputy, Chief Operating Officer

As Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Carlton Duncan provides leadership and guidance in management and operations to CDC′s coordinating centers, institutes and offices, specifically in the areas of security, alternative dispute resolution, facilities, equal employment opportunities, ethics, and human resources issues. One of his top priorities is to work closely with management officials to make sure that the organizational transitions go as smoothly as possible. He also helps to keep CDC operational on a daily basis in response to growth and changes by using sound judgment to best meet the needs of the communities CDC serves as well as the people that provide these services.

Following his graduation from Howard University in 1978, his first job at CDC was as a program representative in the Venereal Disease Control Program, currently known at CDC as the STD Control Program. He was assigned as a Public Health Advisor to the State of Ohio Department of Health, stationed in Cleveland. While he considered it a temporary job, he quickly became hooked on the intrigue of working for CDC in the area of STD control. It was an opportunity to work at the community level and interact with people, as well as a chance to work in different areas of the United States. In addition to Cleveland, Ohio, he had assignments in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, California.

Mr. Duncan was involved in the early days of HIV prevention with what is now known as the Division of Adolescent and School Health where he played a major role in developing CDC´s School Health Education Program to Prevent the Spread of AIDS.