Nilka Rios Burrows, MPH, is an epidemiologist with the Division of Diabetes Translation (DDT), in CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. She joined CDC in 1992 and has worked with the Division of Diabetes Translation since 1997. She is part of the division’s Surveillance Team, performing surveillance of diabetes and its complications.

 She is acting team lead of CDC’s Chronic Kidney Disease Initiative, collaborating with partners on surveillance, screening and cost studies. She has published several articles highlighting racial/ethnic disparities in diabetes. Her latest surveillance work documents progress in reducing the rate of new cases of kidney failure among people with diabetes. During her first 10 years with DDT, Burrows worked with the Division of Diabetes Treatment and Prevention of the Indian Health Service on diabetes surveillance among American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Burrows has received awards for her work in developing the National Diabetes Fact Sheet, and in bringing national attention to the growing public health problem of diabetes and obesity in children and adolescents. She received her Master of Public Health in 1989 from the University of Puerto Rico.