The CDC Leaders

“It is my intention to build on these relationships [partners and stakeholders] because effective partnerships are absolutely crucial for us to achieve our health protection goals.”

—Kevin Fenton, MD, PhD

Kevin Fenton, MD, PhD

Director, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention

Kevin Fenton, M.D., Ph.D., FFPH, is the director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP). In November 2005, Dr. Fenton was named director of the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention, which was renamed NCHHSTP in March 2007 to reflect the addition of CDC’s Viral Hepatitis program.

Prior to becoming director of the NCHHSTP, Dr. Fenton served as chief of CDC's National Syphilis Elimination Effort—a position he had been appointed to in January 2005. Since 1995, he has worked in research, epidemiology, and the prevention of HIV and other STDs. At the age 18, Dr. Fenton entered medical school in Jamaica. His first epidemiologic investigation involved collecting data for a case-control investigation of an outbreak of typhoid in western Jamaica. Following a series of pre-and post-graduation medical assignments in Jamaica, he earned a scholarship to pursue a master's in public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1992.

In 1995, after completing a clinical practicum in infectious diseases, he was appointed as a lecturer in HIV epidemiology at the Medical Research Council Coordinating Center for the Epidemiological Study of AIDS at the Royal Free and University College Medical School (RFUCMS). In 1998, he was appointed a senior lecturer and honorary consultant epidemiologist, specializing in HIV, STDs, and behavioral surveillance at the Communicable Disease Surveillance Center.

In 2002, Dr. Fenton became the director of the Health Protection Agency HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Department. He also worked as an investigator on the second British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal 2000), and implemented a range of national studies on ethnic variations in sexual health outcomes.

Dr. Fenton has directed and established a number of research programs and forums related to HIV/AIDS and sexual health. He has also served on the boards of a number of charitable organizations and government committees related to HIV and STD prevention and sexual health research.