CDC Leadership

“Besides protecting Americans, our job also involves saving lives and preventing disease because that expresses the humanitarian values of our country."

—Stephen Blount, MD, MPH

 

Stephen B. Blount, MD, MPH

Director, Coordinating Office for Global Health

Stephen Blount, MD, MPH, is Director, Coordinating Office of Global Health (COGH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Blount is responsible for CDC's global health portfolio that includes an annual budget of $900 million, 200 US government staff assigned to 50 countries, and 1,500 locally hired staff and contractors. He provides programmatic and financial oversight for the Global AIDS Program; global immunization and disease eradication activities;, malaria, tuberculosis, and tobacco control efforts; and international training programs. Dr. Blount is the lead strategist for CDC′s global activities and manages key partnerships with ministries of health, other US government agencies, UN organizations, the World Bank, private foundations, multi-national corporations, non-government organizations, and academic institutions.

As the first director of the Office of Global Health in 1997, Dr. Blount led the development of CDC′s global strategy, including goals, objectives, priority program areas, and performance measures. He also selected key staff, organized the management structure, and established key internal and external relationships for the new office. Beginning in 2003, as part of the first agency-wide transformation of CDC's structure since 1980, Dr. Blount has led the reorganization of its international activities to better align human, technical, and financial resources with the agency′s goals and priorities and to improve global business services.

After training in family medicine and public health, Dr. Blount served as director of epidemiology at the Detroit Health Department, taught at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan, and directed cancer control research programs at the Michigan Cancer Foundation before joining CDC.

From 1993 to 1997, he was assigned to the World Health Organization (WHO), the health agency of the United Nations, and worked at the Caribbean Epidemiology Center in Trinidad, where he served as director.

Dr. Blount was born and raised in Detroit and educated in its public schools. He received his BS in psychology in 1975, his MD in 1978 from Tufts University, and his MPH in 1980 from the University of Michigan.