Designated Federal Officer

Reynolds M. Salerno, Ph.D
Acting Associate Director for Laboratory Science and Safety
Acting Director, Office of Laboratory Science and Safety
Acting Director, Center for Laboratory Systems and Response
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Ren Salerno is the acting Associate Director for Laboratory Science and Safety at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He is also the acting director of CDC’s Office of Laboratory Science and Safety and acting director of the Center for Laboratory Systems and Response. His permanent position is director of CDC’s Division of Laboratory Systems. He is the lead CDC official for the federal tri-agency Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) program, and the Designated Federal Officer of the US Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee (CLIAC).  

Dr. Salerno is CDC’s point of contact with FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, and CMS’ Division of Clinical Laboratory Improvement and Quality. He is responsible for CDC’s Memorandum of Understanding on Surge Testing during Public Health Emergencies. He oversees CDC’s cooperative agreement with the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), and is CDC’s diagnostic and surveillance testing point of contact with APHL, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), and the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA). He has served as lead of CDC’s Expansion of Screening and Diagnostics Task Force for the COVID-19 Response, co-lead of CDC’s Laboratory and Testing Task Force for the COVID-19 Response, and senior advisor for laboratory and testing for CDC’s Mpox response. He represents CDC on the HHS Testing Coordination Group, the Tri-Agency Task Force for Emergency Diagnostics, and the Federal Interagency Working Group on Improving Diagnostic Safety and Quality in Healthcare.