The CDC Leaders

 

Leandris Liburd, PhD, MPH, MA

Director of the Office of Minority Health and Health Equity

Leandris Liburd, PhD, MPH, MA, serves as the Director for the Office of Minority Health and Health Equity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Liburd has decades of experience in community health, health disparities, and social determinants of health. She provides agency leadership, direction, and accountability for CDC’s policies and programs to ensure they are optimally effective in improving minority health and achieving health equity. Dr. Liburd also serves as the agency lead in coordinating CDC engagement with HHS, other federal agencies, national organizations, and the public on issues of health equity.

Dr. Liburd has held a variety of leadership positions at CDC since joining the agency in 1987. Most recently, she served as the Chief of the Community Health and Equity Branch in the Division of Adult and Community Health in the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion where she directed a broad range of public health programs, including REACH U.S., one of CDC’s flagship health disparities initiatives. Dr. Liburd has published extensively on community-based public health approaches to chronic disease prevention and control, the influence of culture and gender on health beliefs and behaviors, and the elimination of health disparities. Dr. Liburd holds a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, a master of public health in health education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a master of arts in cultural anthropology and a doctor of philosophy degree in medical anthropology from Emory University.