Senior Advisor / Chief of Staff

CDC role

Pamela Dougherty currently serves as the Chief of Staff in CDC's Global Health Center (GHC). In this role, she provides oversight and guidance to inform CDC's global health strategy and coordinate decision-making processes for cross-cutting initiatives.

Ms. Dougherty ensures that the GHC Office of the Director remains focused on its highest priority efforts. Ms. Dougherty is responsible for facilitating the GHC Director's planning, coordination, and alignment of Global Health priorities with CDC, interagency, and multilateral objectives. She works internally and externally to increase communication among CDC Global Health stakeholders and to resolve emerging issues that cross programmatic and organizational lines.

Previous experience

Ms. Dougherty has developed health initiatives and scaled up office capabilities in multiple CDC country offices including Cote d'Ivoire, Tanzania, Botswana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Thailand and in CDC's Southeast Asia Regional Office.

Before beginning her CDC work overseas, Ms. Dougherty served as a Public Health Advisor and Policy Analyst for CDC's Washington office. She contributed to several important public health efforts including the establishment of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) campaigns to advance HIV testing, as well as public health emergency responses to Anthrax and the September 11th attacks.

Prior to her career with CDC, Ms. Dougherty worked for the American Cancer Society as Manager of Government Relations. She led successful campaigns to increase funding for cancer detection and research and advanced efforts to help low-income women gain access to cancer screenings and treatments. Prior to joining the American Cancer Society, Ms. Dougherty was a Legislative Aide for a U.S. Senator member of the transportation, budget, and appropriations committees.

Areas of expertise

Ms. Dougherty is recognized expert in strategic planning, cross functional analysis, intra and inter-agency collaboration and delivery. For the past 20 years, Ms. Dougherty has worked for international and national programs, applying her expertise in strategy, policy, management, across a wide array of public health activities.

Education

Ms. Dougherty holds a Master of Art in Political Science and International Politics from Villanova University. She also has a Bachelor of Art degree in Political Science from Trenton State College (now the College of New Jersey).