Charles Ben Beard, MS, PhD

Charles Benjamin (Ben) Beard joined CDC in 1991 where he worked as a laboratory and field scientist in CDC’s Division of Parasitic Diseases. In 2003, he moved to CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases in Fort Collins, Colorado to serve as Chief of the Bacterial Diseases Branch and since 2017 as the Deputy Division Director. Dr. Beard’s scientific career has focused on the prevention and control of vector-borne diseases, in domestic and global arenas. He has published over 140 scientific papers, books, and book chapters collectively. He is an Associate Editor for Emerging Infectious Diseases, was the past president of the Society for Vector Ecology, and served as Deputy Incident Manager for CDC’s Zika virus outbreak response. Additionally, he has served on advisory panels for the World Health Organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the American Meteorological Society. Dr. Beard served as the Associate Director for Climate Change in CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, where he coordinated CDC’s efforts to mitigate the potential impact of climate variability and disruption on infectious diseases in humans. In this capacity, he participated in the U.S. Global Change Research Program Climate Change and Human Health Group and was an editor and lead author of the 2016 report, The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment.