CDC National HBCU Week Recognition Program 2023

Mandy K. Cohen, MD, MPH, is the Director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. She is one of the nation’s top health leaders with experience leading large and complex organizations, and a proven track-record protecting Americans’ health and safety.

Dr. Tiffany Brunson, PhD, JD currently serves as a lead Health Scientist and the Acting Senior Advisor for Strategy and Evaluation within the Office of Science at the National Center for Immunization & Respiratory Diseases at the CDC. With over 15 years of experience in science and public health, Dr. Brunson has built expertise in the fields of scientific evaluations, legislative & policy analysis, and partnership development & outreach.

Linnet Griffiths serves as the Deputy Director of CDC’s Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Workplace Equity (OEEOWE). Prior to joining OEEOWE, Linnet served as the Associate Director for Policy, Performance, and Communication in the Office of Safety, Security and Asset Management where she oversaw activities related to employee emergency preparedness, such as the emergency text message alert system.

Tochukwu Igbo, JD is the Special Advisor in the Health Equity Unit at the Division of Injury Prevention (DIP) within the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In this role, Mr. Igbo works as part of a team to build health equity capacity across DIP, promote health equity in injury prevention programmatic areas, ensure strategic alignment of health equity efforts with the Division, Center, and Agency strategic plans and foster innovative approaches to address equity issues within the DIP workplace and workforce.

Dr. Leonard Jack, Jr, is a graduate of Virginia State University, an Historically Black College and University, located in Petersburg, Virginia, where he graduated magna cum laude in Health Education with minors in Biology and Psychology. Dr. Jack completed his master of science and doctor of philosophy degrees in Behavioral Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University.  He is a distinguished research consultant at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and was appointed editor in chief of Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD) in October 2016.

Jamila Jones, PhD, MPH serves as a Health Communications Officer and Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff in CDC’s Office of the Chief of Staff. In this role, Dr. Jones leads the implementation of CDC’s Moving Forward Initiative, support the director’s priorities related to employee engagement, and provide guidance on communication activities across the IOD.

Dr. Jones joined CDC in 2002 as a fellow in the Office of the Director. Throughout her career at CDC, Jones provided communication guidance and support to various CDC divisions and programs, such as the Division of Violence Prevention and the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, on their media, web, social media, and campaign activities.

Mr. David Roberts, MPH began his career with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2009 as a Public Health Advisor in the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, & TB Prevention (NCHHSTP), Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention (DSTDP), Field Services Branch (FSB) as a field assignee to the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) in Chicago, IL.  In this position, he served in various capacities which included quality assurance for Chicago Syphilis Elimination, collaborating with CDPH staff with HIV Prevention Projects and the Community Development Block Grant, and in disease intervention as a Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS).