The CDC Leaders

“You think that if you understand one, you understand two - because one and one are two. But you must also understand ‘and’.”

—Sufi saying

Reginald R. Mebane, MS

Chief Management Officer, Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases

Mr. Mebane joined CDC′s Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases (CCID) in February 2005 to serve as the Chief Management Officer. In this role, he has direct authority for the management of the estimated $4.0 billion CCID budget which includes business operations, human capital, information technology, grants, facilities, and administrative services for the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention; National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; National Center for Preparedness, Detection, and Control of Infectious Diseases; National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne and Enteric Diseases.

Mr. Mebane started his career at FedEx in 1981, where he took a part-time position as a handler unloading trucks and loading planes. While working towards his bachelor’s and master′s degrees from the University of Memphis, and working at night for FedEx, he also worked as a psychiatric case manager and psychotherapist in Memphis during the de-institutionalization of the mentally ill. Mr. Mebane served as a case manager for six years, and considers that experience his first tie to public health. Through that work he gained very valuable life lessons in leadership and humanity—that stereotypes are not accurate and that perseverance is the most important life leadership skill of all. As a result of this experience, he later became Chairman of the Memphis Health, Education & Housing Finance Board. The restructuring of this board under his chairmanship is his legacy to Memphis in making housing affordable for people of moderate income means.

Over the years, he was promoted at FedEx—to manager, then senior manager, and eventually he became part of the FedEx Leadership Institute where he taught leadership and management practices to FedEx employees from all parts of the company nationally and internationally. He was the corporate lead for diversity training from 1995 to 1997. In 1997, he was promoted to Director of International Operations, where he was responsible for overseeing shipments to and from more than 200 countries. While still in Memphis, he was a member of the adjunct faculty of the University of Memphis.

In 2001, Mr. Mebane moved to Buffalo, New York, to become the Chief Operating Officer for a company that FedEx acquired—one with $2 billion in revenue yearly. His new position required that he manage massive changes, create best business practices, and facilitate the merger and integration of over 1,000 new employees. While there, he also taught at the University of Buffalo in the MBA program.

After three years into the assignment, FedEx, with over five different operating companies, over 150,000 employees worldwide, and over $27 billion in revenues, went through a major reorganization and restructuring.

After the reorganization, he chose to redirect his management career based on his personal passion to serve others. It was at that time he was attracted to CDC′s mission —saving lives and improving health. Since his arrival at CDC he has been instrumental in managing the reorganization of the Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases which represents roughly half of CDC′s programs.