Leadership

Public Health Surveillance and Informatics Program Office (proposed)

Division of Notifiable Diseases and Healthcare Information

Kathleen Gallagher, D.Sc., MPH
Director

Kathleen Gallagher, D.Sc., MPH, is director of the Division of Notifiable Diseases and Healthcare Information, Public Health Surveillance and Informatics Program Office (proposed) (PHSIPO). She brings to this position a wealth of CDC- and state-level surveillance experience.

Before joining PHSIPO, Dr. Gallagher served as team lead for surveillance and epidemiologic investigations of domestic measles, mumps, rubella, and polio while in the Epidemiology Branch, Division of Viral Diseases, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). During the fall of 2009, she was detailed to serve as liaison between NCIRD and the National Center for Public Health Informatics. In that capacity, she supported the Distribute project and the use of new healthcare databases to supplement pandemic influenza monitoring.

From 2005 to 2008, Dr. Gallagher was team lead for hepatitis surveillance in the Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Division of Viral Hepatitis, National Center for HIV, Hepatitis, STD, & TB Prevention (NCHHSTP). Earlier from 2002 to 2005, she worked in HIV/AIDS surveillance in NCHHSTP, where she played a key role in implementing the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System.

Before joining CDC in 2002, Dr. Gallagher was associate director for Infectious Diseases Outcomes Research at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute. From 1984 to 1997, she worked as an epidemiologist with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, where her responsibilities included oversight of AIDS surveillance. In addition to applying her expertise in surveillance and evaluation of surveillance systems, she is interested in cost-effectiveness of surveillance systems and prevention activities, survival modeling for infectious diseases, interactions between HIV and other infectious agents, and emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.

Dr. Gallagher received a bachelor-of-arts degree in microbiology and economics from Rutgers University in 1981 and a master-of-public-health degree in epidemiology and environmental health from the Boston University School of Public Health in 1984. She was awarded her doctor-of-science degree in epidemiology from the Boston University School of Public Health in 1998.