Staff Bio
Leslie Ann Dauphin, PhD, is the Director of the Public Health Infrastructure Center at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Role at CDC
The Public Health Infrastructure Center serves as the connection point between the agency and state, local, and territorial jurisdictions; tribes; and CDC's public health partners. Dr. Dauphin leads a team of experts that set the strategic direction for the center to ensure that our country's public health infrastructure has the people, services, and systems needed to promote and protect health in every U.S. community (including all 50 states, the U.S. territories, tribes, and freely associated states).
Previous experience
Dr. Dauphin has served in a number of leadership roles across CDC. Most recently, she served as director of the former CDC Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services. Dr. Dauphin’s leadership was instrumental to CDC’s response to laboratory safety events in 2014 and in the creation and successful stand up of the Office of Laboratory Science and Safety, where she served as deputy director. Previously, she served as acting Director for the Office of Science and Deputy Associate Director for Laboratory Science within the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. A trained laboratory scientist, Dr. Dauphin specialized in bioterrorism and emerging threats as a research microbiologist and response team coordinator for CDC’s 24/7 laboratory response to bioterrorism threats in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Dauphin also served in leadership roles on CDC’s COVID-19 response.
Dr. Dauphin is a veteran of the U.S. Army, where she was a paratrooper under the 18th Airborne Corps. She received the Southwest Asia Service Medal and the National Defense Service Medal for her service in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm.