Leadership

U.S. Assistant Surgeon General, Ali S. Khan (RET), MD, MPH
Director, Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response

U.S. Assistant Surgeon General Ali S. Khan (RET), MD, MPH, began leading CDC's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response in August 2010. Most recently he was the Deputy Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) at CDC. Dr. Khan is an Assistant Surgeon General and joined CDC and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps in 1991 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer. Over the past decade, he has responded to and led numerous high profile domestic and international public health emergencies including hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, monkeypox, Rift Valley fever, avian influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the Asian Tsunami, and the initial public health response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Dr. Khan's professional career has focused on bioterrorism, global health, and emerging infectious diseases. He served as one of the main architects of CDC's public health bioterrorism preparedness program which upgraded local, state, and national public health systems to detect and rapidly respond to bioterrorism. He designed CDC's joint global field epidemiology and laboratory training program. Dr. Khan was an integral part of the design and implementation of the President's Malaria Initiative and has been engaged in guinea worm and polio eradication. He also proposed BioPHusion as a new public health initiative to improve knowledge exchange for all public health practitioners.

Dr. Khan received his MD from Downstate Medical Center in his hometown of Brooklyn, NY, and completed a joint residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor before joining CDC. He has a Masters of Public Health from Emory University where he is an adjunct professor. He has over 150 peer-reviewed publications, textbook chapters, editorials, and brief communiqués. He has consulted intensively for multiple U.S. organizations including NASA, Ministries of Health, and the World Health Organization.

Lynn Austin, Ph.D
Deputy Director

Lynn Austin is the Deputy Director in the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (PHPR) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In this role, Dr. Austin manages the day-to-day activities of the PHPR Office of the Director and management operations for the organization of over 800 staff and budget of $1.3 billion. She ensures that all business services are provided for operations related to the strategic national stockpile, select agents and toxins, state/local readiness operations, and CDC's emergency operations and response activities. Dr. Austin is responsible for strategic planning and utilization of the use of bioterrorism funds, workforce and career development of organizational staff, organizational budget and financial management, personnel and human resources management, grants and cooperative agreements, facility and space utilization, and information resources. She provides leadership in the resolution of issues which cross organizational lines, aids in determining policy and program objectives, coordinates scientific and program input to the decision-making process, and assists in maintaining a focus on the highest priority public health initiatives.

Dr. Austin has been with the federal government for over 33 years, including experience at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. She has been at CDC since 1988, where she has served as the Chief of Staff to the Director, CDC; Deputy Director, Division of Adolescent and School Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; Associate Director, Management Operations, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Assistant Director, Policy, Planning, and Partnerships. She served on a two-year detail to the Financial Management Office as lead for the Business Transformation/Change Management Team, with responsibility for all training and communication activities related to the implementation of CDC's new Unified Financial Management System. Dr. Austin received a Ph.D. in public policy from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a master's degree in public administration from Georgia State University, and a bachelor's degree in education and management from Berry College in Rome, Georgia.

Daniel M. Sosin, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P.
Deputy Director and Chief Medical Officer

Daniel M. Sosin is the Deputy Director and Chief Medical Officer of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (PHPR) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In this role, he is the lead science advisor and provides scientific representation for preparedness on behalf of the PHPR Director and CDC. He serves as a liaison to CDC programs and external partners and assures strategy and program coordination for PHPR in medical and public health preparedness and response.

Dr. Sosin began his CDC career in 1986 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer assigned to Kentucky. He served as associate director for science at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, coordinating national injury surveillance and extramural research activities. He also served as director of CDC's former Division of Public Health Surveillance and Informatics, where he managed notifiable disease surveillance systems and tools and introduced CDC to biosurveillance concepts.

Dr. Sosin joined PHPR in 2004 as the Senior Advisor for Science and Public Health Practice. In 2008 Dr. Sosin initiated the Biosurveillance Coordination Unit at the request of the CDC and PHPR directors. In this role he was the federal lead for the development and integration of the nationwide biosurveillance capability for human health. Dr. Sosin served as acting PHPR director from January 2009 through July 2010. Dr. Sosin is board certified in preventive medicine and internal medicine and a fellow of the American College of Physicians. He received his bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Michigan; his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine; and his master's degree in epidemiology from the University of Washington School Of Public Health.