Leadership and Expert Bios
Senior Advisor on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Office of Strategy and Innovation
Sarah Bacon, PhD, is senior advisor on adverse childhood experiences and supports CDC’s Injury Center from her position in the Office of Strategy and Innovation. In this role, she provides strategic leadership and coordination across a range of injury and violence topics as they relate to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
Director, Division of Overdose Prevention
Grant Baldwin, PhD, MPH, is the director of the Division of Overdose Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. He leads the division in monitoring trends in the drug overdose epidemic and other emerging drug threats, identifying and scaling up prevention activities to address the evolving drug crisis, and supporting local drug-free community coalitions.
Deputy Associate Director for Science, Division of Injury Prevention
Mick Ballesteros, PhD, is the deputy associate director for Science in the Division of Injury Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. Dr. Ballesteros provides leadership, planning, and guidance to division management and staff on scientific quality, policy, training, and research priorities on various division topic areas.
Deputy Associate Director for Science, Division of Violence Prevention
Kathleen C. Basile, PhD, serves as deputy associate director for Science in the Division of Violence Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. She is responsible for providing leadership, planning, and guidance to division management and staff on scientific policy, training, and research priorities on violence prevention topics.
Epidemiologist, Division of Injury Prevention
Laurie Beck, MPH, has served as an epidemiologist on the Transportation Safety Team within the Division of Injury Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center since 2003. She works to prevent motor vehicle injuries and deaths, with research interests that include safe transportation for older adults and seat belt use.
Team Lead, Safety Promotion Team, Applied Sciences Branch, Division of Injury Prevention
Gwen Bergen, PhD, MS, MPH, serves as the team lead for the Safety Promotion Team in the Applied Sciences Branch of the Division of Injury Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. The Safety Promotion Team’s primary focuses are the prevention of drownings and older adult falls.
Team Lead, Traumatic Brain Injury Team, Division of Injury Prevention
Matt Breiding, PhD, is a behavioral scientist and serves as team lead of the Traumatic Brain Injury Team in the Division of Injury Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. His work at CDC has been focused on surveillance of traumatic brain injury, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and child abuse—both domestic and international.
Research Mathematical Statistician, Division of Injury Prevention
Jieru Chen, PhD, is a research mathematical statistician in the in the Division of Injury Prevention (DIP) at CDC’s Injury Center. Her work at CDC is focused on complex survey methodology, injury data surveillance system design and implementation, and complex sample data analysis for supporting public health programs.
Lead, Injury Control Research Centers (ICRCs) Program at the Program Implementation and Evaluation Branch, Division of Injury Prevention
Ekta Choudhary, PhD, MPH, leads the Injury Control Research Centers (ICRCs) Program at the Program Implementation and Evaluation Branch, in the Division of Injury Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. In this role, Dr. Choudhary provides technical support to manage all research, training, and outreach activities performed by ICRCs. CDC funded ICRCs study as a way to prevent injuries and violence and to work with community partners to put research findings into action.
Health Scientist, Safety Promotion Team, Division of Injury Prevention
Tessa Clemens, PhD, MEd, serves as a health scientist on the Safety Promotion Team in the Division of Injury Prevention (DIP) at CDC’s Injury Center. She identifies effective strategies for preventing drowning through investigating data sources and methods to improve drowning surveillance. Her work focuses on supporting health equity, which includes understanding and addressing racial and ethnic disparities in drowning rates and supporting the implementation of effective interventions among underserved populations with the highest rates of drowning.
Epidemiologist, Division of Injury Prevention
Jill Daughtery, PhD, is an Epidemiologist on the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Team in the Division of Injury Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. Her work focuses on understanding the public health burden of and sociodemographic disparities in TBI.
Acting Branch Chief, Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Division of Overdose Prevention
Nicole Davis, PhD, MPH, is the acting branch chief for the Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch of the Division of Overdose Prevention (DOP) at CDC’s Injury Center. In this role, she manages the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS), which collects information on fatal drug overdose deaths from health departments funded by CDC’s Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) cooperative agreement.
Senior Scientist, Research and Evaluation Branch, Division of Violence Prevention
Sarah DeGue, PhD, is a senior scientist in the Research and Evaluation Branch of the Division of Violence Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center, and lead for CDC’s Dating Matters® teen dating violence prevention initiative. Her work focuses primarily on the etiology and prevention of sexual violence.
Chief Clinical Research Officer, Division of Overdose Prevention
Debbie Dowell, MD, MPH, is chief clinical research officer for the Division of Overdose Prevention (DOP) at CDC’s Injury Center. Previously, as Chief Medical Officer for CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Dr. Dowell led the development of the CDC strategy to prevent opioid overdoses.
Economics Team Lead, Data Analytics Branch, Division of Injury Prevention
Curtis Florence, PhD, is the lead of the Economics Team for the Data Analytics Branch in the Injury Center’s Division of Injury Prevention. Dr. Florence leads a team of economists, providing estimates on the economic burden of injury and violence.
Senior Scientist, Mortality Surveillance Team, Division of Violence Prevention
Katherine Fowler, PhD, is the senior scientist on the Mortality Surveillance Team in the Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC). As the Senior Scientist on the team she provides leadership, planning, and guidance to other scientists regarding technical and scientific operations of the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), management and design of research projects using NVDRS data, and helps set priorities for NVDRS research activities.
Arlene Greenspan, DrPH, MPH, PT
Associate Director for Science, Office of Science
Arlene Greenspan, DrPH, MPH, PT, is the associate director for Science at CDC’s Injury Center. For more than 20 years, she has conducted research in various areas of injury prevention and control including teen driving, child passenger safety, falls prevention, and traumatic brain injury.
Team Lead, Division of Overdose Prevention
Gery Guy, PhD, MPH, is a health scientist and serves as the team lead for the Applied Research, Evaluation and Integration team in the Division of Overdose Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center.
Senior Health Scientist, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Team
Juliet Haarbauer-Krupa, PhD, is a senior health scientist on the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Team, in the Division of Injury Prevention (DIP), at the Injury Center. As a health scientist, her role on the TBI team is to devise research projects and products to better understand trends in TBI in the U.S. and to improve health outcomes for individuals living with a TBI.
Epidemiologist and Pharmacist, Safety Promotion Team, Division of Injury Prevention
Yara Haddad is an epidemiologist and pharmacist on the Safety Promotion Team in the Division of Injury Prevention (DIP) at CDC’s Injury Center. Her expertise is geriatric care, older adult fall and injury prevention, and effects of medications and polypharmacy on older adult safety.
Chief, Surveillance Branch, Division of Violence Prevention
Dr. Kristin Holland is the chief of the Division of Violence Prevention’s (DVP) Surveillance Branch at CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. In this role, she oversees the implementation of multiple surveillance systems, including the Firearm Injury Surveillance Through Emergency Rooms (FASTER) syndromic surveillance system, the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), and the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS).
Epidemiologist & Cannabis Strategy Unit Lead, Division of Overdose Prevention
Brooke Hoots, PhD, MSPH, is an epidemiologist and the lead of the Cannabis Strategy Unit in the Division of Overdose Prevention. In this role, she provides programmatic and technical direction for CDC’s cannabis-related activities, which focus on surveillance and research to address gaps in the benefits and harms of cannabis use.
Christopher M. Jones, PharmD, DrPH, MPH
Director
Christopher M. Jones, PharmD, DrPH, MPH (CAPT U.S. Public Health Service), is the director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Prior to becoming the director of NCIPC, Dr. Jones served as deputy director of NCIPC. In this role, he served as the primary scientific advisor to the NCIPC director and other senior staff on science issues in public health, clinical care implementation, epidemiology, biostatistics, economics, and behavioral science. In addition, he provided scientific leadership and strategic direction by overseeing the refinement of the scientific research agenda and coordinating the NCIPC strategic priorities of drug overdose, suicide prevention, and adverse childhood experiences.
Behavioral Scientist, Research and Evaluation Branch, Division of Violence Prevention
Megan C. Kearns, PhD, is a senior behavioral scientist in the Division of Violence Prevention at the Injury Center. Her research interests focus on primary and secondary prevention of intimate partner violence, including evaluation of community and policy-based prevention approaches.
Associate Director of Program Implementation, Division of Overdose Prevention
Henrietta Kuoh is the associate director of Program Implementation (ADPI) for the Division of Overdose Prevention (DOP) in CDC’s Injury Center. As ADPI, Henrietta provides leadership on the development and implementation of DOP programmatic initiatives aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality associated with drug overdoses and supports the execution of its overarching strategic priorities.
Lead, Data Science Team, Data Analytics Branch, Division of Injury Prevention
Dr. Royal Law is the lead for the Data Science Team in the Data Analytics Branch of the Division of Injury Prevention. In this role, he manages a multidisciplinary team of health scientists, computer scientists, and statisticians to apply novel analytics and data science approaches to existing programs and topics across the Injury Center.
Branch Chief, Applied Sciences Branch, Division of Injury Prevention
Robin Lee, PhD, MPH, leads the Applied Sciences Branch (ASB) at CDC’s Injury Center. ASB conducts surveillance, behavioral, and epidemiologic research to address unintentional and self-directed injuries, with a focus on the evaluation of trends and the assessment of environmental, social, behavioral, and other risk and protective factors, as well as the development and evaluation of intervention activities.
Branch Chief for the Health Systems and Research Branch, Division of Overdose Prevention
Jan L. Losby, PhD, MSW is a behavioral scientist and serves as the branch chief for the Health Systems and Research Branch at CDC’s Injury Center. Dr. Losby helps advance the implementation of evidence-based prescribing guidelines, conducts applied health systems research, and builds scientific evidence to support state, community, and tribal efforts to address the opioid overdose epidemic.
Associate Director for Science, Division of Injury Prevention
Karin A. Mack, PhD, is the associate director for science (ADS) in the Division of Injury Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. As the ADS, she is responsible for working with the division’s science professionals and provides overarching vision and scientific leadership.
Branch Chief, Program Implementation and Evaluation Branch, Division of Injury Prevention
Angela Marr, MPH, is the branch Chief of the Program Implementation and Evaluation Branch in the Division of Injury Prevention at the Injury Center. In this role, Ms. Marr provides leadership to bridge science and practice in an effort to move the field of violence and injury prevention forward.
Branch Chief, Field Epidemiology and Prevention Branch, Division of Violence Prevention
Greta Massetti, PhD, is the branch chief of the Field Epidemiology and Prevention Branch and a senior epidemiologist in the Division of Violence Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. In this role, Dr. Massetti leads the division’s efforts to address the global burden of violence against children and youth.
Senior Health Scientist, Division of Overdose Prevention
Christine Mattson, PhD, is a senior health scientist on the Overdose Mortality Team in the Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch in the Division of Overdose Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. In this role, Dr. Mattson has worked on the Enhanced State Opioid Overdose Surveillance (ESOOS) and the Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) cooperative agreements focusing on fatal overdose data collected in the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS).
Melissa C. Mercado, PhD, MSc, MA
Lead Behavioral Scientist, Division of Violence Prevention
Melissa C. Mercado, PhD, MSc, MA, is a lead behavioral scientist in the Division of Violence Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. As an expert in youth and community violence and bullying prevention, she is part of the federal inter-agency StopBullying.gov editorial board and oversees the CDC Youth Violence Prevention Centers network.
Director, Division of Violence Prevention
James A. Mercy, PhD, is the director of the Division of Violence Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. In this role, he provides leadership to innovative research and science-based programs to prevent violence and reduce its consequences.
Lead Medical Officer, Division of Overdose Prevention
Dr. Christina Mikosz currently serves as the lead of the Clinical Practice Team in the Health Systems and Research Branch in the Division of Overdose Prevention, where she oversees clinically-oriented overdose prevention activities and research to address the overdose crisis.
Senior Scientist , Division of Violence Prevention
Phyllis Holditch Niolon, PhD, is the senior scientist for preventing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the Office of the Director in the Division of Violence Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center.
Branch Chief, Division of Overdose Prevention
Rita Noonan, PhD, is a sociologist and branch chief in CDC’s Division of Overdose Prevention. Dr. Noonan and her staff oversee prevention and evaluation strategies that support CDC’s $1.2B program, Overdose Data to Action (OD2A). OD2A is designed to reduce drug overdose deaths and related harms in the United States by providing funding to 47 states and 16 large city/county health departments to improve public health surveillance, implement evidence-based prevention strategies, and shed light on emerging innovations in the field.
Deputy Associate Director for Science, Division of Overdose Prevention
Commander Erin Parker, PhD, serves as the Deputy Associate Director for Science in the Division of Overdose Prevention (DOP) at the Injury Center.
Associate Director, Office of Strategy and Innovation
Manisha Patel, MD, MS, currently serves as the associate director for the Office of Strategy and Innovation (OSI) in CDC’s Injury Center and is a captain in the U.S. Public Health Service.
Health Scientist, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Team, Division of Injury Prevention
Alexis Peterson, PhD, is a health scientist on the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Team in the Division of Injury Prevention at the Injury Center. Her role on the TBI team is to promote the accurate reporting of TBI incidence and burden to inform the general public and stakeholders.
Senior Health Economist, Division of Injury Prevention
Cora Peterson, PhD, MSc, is a senior health economist in the Division of Injury Prevention at the Injury Center. She leads economic evaluation, cost analysis, statistical analysis, and decision modeling studies to support resource allocation decisions related to injury and violence prevention.
Director, Division of Injury Prevention
Dr. Judith (Judy) R. Qualters is the director of the Division of Injury Prevention at the Injury Center. Dr. Qualters has extensive experience leading public health surveillance, research, and state prevention programs.
Epidemiologist, Division of Overdose Prevention
Douglas Roehler, PhD, MPH, serves as an epidemiologist for the Cannabis Strategy Unit in the Division of Overdose Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. His work has focused on coordinating and implementing CDC’s cannabis strategic plan, expanding cannabis surveillance and research, and building capacity for drug-related overdoses.
Wesley M. Sargent, Jr., EdD, EdS, MA
Senior Health Scientist, Division of Overdose Prevention
Wesley M. Sargent, Jr., EdD, EdS, MA, serves as a senior health scientist for the Clinical Practice Team in the Division of Overdose Prevention (DOP) at CDC’s Injury Center. His work at CDC has focused on translating and implementing CDC’s 2022 CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain (CDC Guideline) and serving as a science officer to support jurisdictions advancing prevention interventions through the Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) cooperative agreement.
Public Health Advisor, Division of Injury Prevention
Kelly Sarmiento, MPH, serves as a public health advisor in the Division of Injury Prevention’s Traumatic Brain Injury Team at CDC’s Injury Center. Kelly’s expertise is in pediatric mild traumatic brain injury and she is responsible for leading the HEADS UP campaign.
Chief Medical Officer, United States Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps
Senior Medical Officer and Medical Toxicologist, Health Systems & Research Branch, Division of Overdose Prevention
Captain Joshua Schier, MD, MPH, is a senior medical officer and subject matter expert in medical toxicology for various activities within the Injury Center’s Division of Overdose Prevention. He serves as a strategy lead for CDC’s Overdose Data to Action Program, overseeing activities related to linking overdose patients to care and supporting providers and health systems across 66 states, counties, and metropolitan areas.
Branch Chief, Division of Overdose Prevention
Puja Seth, PhD, is the branch chief for the Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch in the Division of Overdose Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. In this role, she oversees the conceptualization and implementation of the surveillance components of CDC’s Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) program.
Senior Director for Scientific Programs, Division of Violence Prevention
Thomas R. Simon, PhD, is the senior director for scientific programs in the Division of Violence Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. In this role he provides leadership, planning, and guidance to division management and staff on scientific policy, research methodology, and priorities for research activities. His work focuses primarily on violence involving young people and the linkages across different forms of violence.
Team Lead, Applied Statistics Team, Division of Injury Prevention
Mark Stevens, is a mathematical statistician and serves as team lead of the Applied Statistics Team in the Data Analytics Branch of the Division of Injury Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. His work at CDC has been focused on complex survey data analysis and mixed (hierarchical) modeling methodology.
Deborah M. Stone, ScD, MSW, MPH
Lead Behavioral Scientist, Suicide Prevention Team, Division of Injury Prevention
Deb Stone is the lead behavioral scientist on the Suicide Prevention Team within the Applied Science Branch in the Division of Injury Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center.
Senior Advisor for Data Science and Innovation, Office of Strategy and Innovation
Steven Sumner, MD, MSc, serves as senior advisor for Data Science and Innovation at CDC’s Injury Center. He coordinates, supports, and oversees data science initiatives in priority public health areas of drug overdose, suicide/mental health, and violence and injury prevention.
Physician, Division of Violence Prevention
Elizabeth A. Swedo, MD, MPH, is a physician in the surveillance branch of the Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) at CDC’s Injury Center. Dr. Swedo works to prevent adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and promote positive childhood experiences (PCEs) through improved surveillance and measurement. Dr. Swedo is the lead for CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) ACEs module and Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) ACEs and PCEs content.
Associate Director for Science (ADS), Division of Overdose Prevention
Alana Vivolo-Kantor, PhD, MPH, is the associate director for science (ADS) in the Division of Overdose Prevention (DOP) at CDC’s Injury Center. As the ADS, she provides leadership, planning, and guidance to division management and staff on scientific policy, research methodology, and priorities for DOP overdose prevention research activities. She also oversees CDC’s Cannabis Strategy and Coordination Unit.
Behavioral Scientist, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Team, Division of Injury Prevention
Dana Waltzman, PhD, is a behavioral scientist on the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Team in the Division of Injury Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. Her work focuses on understanding the public health burden, prevention, and long-term effects of TBI.
Epidemiologist, Transportation Safety Team, Division of Injury Prevention
Bethany West, MPH, leads the Transportation Safety Team in the Applied Sciences Branch of the Division of Injury Prevention. In this role, she manages a team of epidemiologists and health scientists who work to reduce motor vehicle crash injuries and deaths through research, surveillance, and implementation and evaluation of evidence-based programs and policies.
Branch Chief of the Data Analytics Branch, Division of Injury Prevention
Amy Wolkin, DrPH, MSPH, is the chief of the Data Analytics Branch in the Division of Injury Prevention at CDC’s Injury Center. Dr. Wolkin leads a multi-disciplinary group of scientists who provide leadership on health statistics, data science, health economic research, and programming and web application development for the Injury Center.