Executive Leadership & Expert Bios

Glen Nowak, PhD

Senior Advisor to Director, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases

Glen Nowak is a senior advisor to the Director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) and a member of NCIRD's senior management team. He provides leadership and expertise in communication science, health communications, risk communication, news media, social marketing and public engagement. He is involved in projects and collaborations designed to increase vaccine confidence and acceptance, address vaccine coverage disparities and to promote adoption of vaccination recommendations. Dr. Nowak also directs and collaborates on vaccine and immunization research and evaluation projects. He is also involved in NCIRD and CDC's pandemic influenza preparedness and response efforts.

Prior to joining NCIRD's senior management team, Dr. Nowak served six years as the Chief of Media Relations at CDC, including serving as Director of CDC's Division of News and Electronic Media. In this position, he served as the senior media advisor to the CDC director and senior agency managers, and was a senior CDC spokesperson. Prior to joining the Office of Media Relations in June, 2004, Dr. Nowak served five years as the associate director for communications at the National Immunization Program at the CDC.

Prior to joining CDC in January 1999, Dr. Nowak was an associate professor of advertising and communication at the University of Georgia. At Georgia, Dr. Nowak taught undergraduate and graduate courses in principles of advertising, communication and advertising research, communication and advertising management, social marketing, and health communications. In the past twelve years, he has authored or co-authored a number of peer-reviewed journal articles on communications practices, social marketing, and health communications.

Dr. Nowak received his BS in 1982 from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, with majors in both economics and communications. He continued his studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he subsequently earned an MA degree in journalism (1987) and a PhD in the field of mass communications (1990).

To request an interview, call CDC's Division of Media Relations at (404) 639-3286, or e-mail us at media@cdc.gov.