The CDC Leaders

“We need to lean forward, anticipate, prepare, and to the extent we can, mitigate the dangers involved, not only for us but for our children and their children.”

—Howard Frumkin, MD, MPH, DrPH

Howard Frumkin, MD, MPH, DrPH

Director, National Center for Environmental Health, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

Howard Frumkin, MD, MPH, DrPH, serves as director of the National Center for Environmental Health, ATSDR. NCEH/ATSDR works to maintain and improve the health of the American people by promoting a healthy environment and by preventing premature death and avoidable illness and disability caused by toxic substances and other environmental hazards.

Before joining the CDC in September 2005, he was professor and chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, and professor of medicine at Emory Medical School, in Atlanta. At Emory, he founded and directed the Environmental and Occupational Medicine Consultation Clinic, the Occupational Medicine Residency training program, and the Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit. Doctor Frumkin is an internist, environmental and occupational medicine specialist, and epidemiologist.

He previously served on the board of directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), where he co-chaired the Environment Committee; as president of the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC); as chair of the Science Board of the American Public Health Association (APHA); as a member of EPA's Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, where he chaired the Smart Growth and Climate Change work groups; and on the National Toxicology Program Board of Scientific Counselors.

He currently serves on the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine. In Georgia, he was a member of the state's Hazardous Waste Management Authority, the Department of Agriculture Pesticide Advisory Committee, and the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division Partnership Program Advisory Committee, and is a graduate of the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership.

In Georgia's Clean Air Campaign, he served on the board and chaired the Health/Technical Committee. He was named Environmental Professional of the Year by the Georgia Environmental Council in 2004. He has served as a consultant to several corporations, including Hewlett-Packard, Southwire, Georgia Power, and Polaroid, and to several unions, including the Chemical Workers Association and the Utility Workers Union.

He is the author or co-author of over 100 scientific journal articles and chapters, and has written numerous books. Dr. Frumkin received his BA from Brown University, his MD from the University of Pennsylvania, his MPH and DrPH from Harvard, his internal medicine training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Cambridge Hospital, and his occupational medicine training at Harvard. He is board-certified in both internal medicine and occupational medicine, and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.