Health Equity Officer

Staff Bio

Victoria Phifer Gyebi, MPH, serves as Health Equity Officer for the Public Health Infrastructure Center at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ms. Phifer Gyebi joined CDC in 2015 and has held a range of policy positions including serving as a member of the former Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services OD Policy Office from 2016 until she was named Health Equity Officer in 2021.

Victoria Phifer Gyebi, MPH
Health Equity Officer, Victoria Phifer Gyebi, MPH

CDC role

As the center's Health Equity Officer, Ms. Phifer Gyebi is the principal advisor to the center director and deputy director providing guidance, consultation, and evaluation of center activities to ensure that work across the center is planned, executed, and evaluated with consideration for social determinants of health and health equity. In collaboration with center leaders and programs, Ms. Phifer Gyebi provided guidance to develop goals in support of CDC's CORE Health Equity Science and Intervention Strategy.

She has championed approaches to integrate health equity principles in science, policy, and communication within the center and co-led the inaugural Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services Health Equity Science Seminar Series. Ms. Phifer Gyebi is committed to increasing diversity, inclusion, and equitable advancement in STEM fields, including public health, as well as reducing health disparities.

Previous experience

Ms. Phifer Gyebi's previous leadership roles include supporting CDC's COVID-19 Response as the policy lead for the Chief Health Equity Officer Unit and the Data, Analytics, and Visualization Task Force. She supported key functions of the former Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services OD Policy Office related to legislative affairs, partnerships, and strategy.

Education

Ms. Phifer Gyebi entered federal public service in the CDC Washington Office as a Presidential Management Fellow. She earned her Master of Public Health degree from Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health with a concentration in health policy and a certificate in Social Determinants of Health, as well as a B.S. degree from Howard University.