The CDC Leaders

“One of the objectives of NCHS is not only to provide the latest public health information at the national level, but also to make it available at the state and local level.”

—Edward J. Sondik, PhD

Edward J. Sondik, PhD

Director, National Center for Health Statistics

In his current capacity as director of the National Center for Health Statistics, Edward J. Sondik, PhD, directs personnel located in two locations: Hyattsville, Maryland, outside Washington, DC, and in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. He has served as director since coming to CDC in 1997.

Dr. Sondik has also served as the acting director of the National Center for Public Health Informatics, and as acting director to co-lead the Coordinating Center for Health Information and Service, until a candidate was named.

In 1976, Dr. Sondik accepted a position at NIH where he worked on a clinical trial design in the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. He stayed on for six years, before moving on to the National Cancer Institute where he was responsible for the SEER program, a pioneer cancer registry system.

His background is in mathematics and statistics and the discipline of operations research, with academic training in electrical engineering on the side of control systems, computers, and operations research. Dr. Sondik received his PhD at Stanford University. It was there he was given the opportunity to work with the Stanford Medical School to redesign the Stanford Hospital. He also taught at the university.