Director of the Division of Readiness and Response Science

Lisa Barrios, DrPH, ScM

Lisa Barrios, DrPH, ScM is the Director of the Division of Readiness and Response Science (DRRS) in the Office of Readiness and Response (ORR). In this capacity, Dr. Barrios is leading the new division to develop and implement the science of readiness and response; build scientific expertise to address health disparities and community mitigation response readiness; evaluate state, tribal, local, and territorial readiness and response; and inform a broader framework for evaluating the agency’s readiness state.

Prior to this appointment, Dr. Barrios was Senior Advisor in the Division of Readiness and Response Science leading the effort to stand up this new division. Dr. Barrios has a long history with CDC where she worked on many emergency responses and in several Centers. In the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, she served as the Senior Advisor for School Preparedness in the Division of Adolescent and School Health. In this role, she led a team taking a proactive approach to school preparedness and helping schools and CDC prepare for the next emergency response. Dr. Barrios led school-focused activities on CDC’s COVID-19 Emergency Response and 2022 Multinational Monkeypox Response. From 2004 to 2020, Dr. Barrios was the chief of the Research Application and Evaluation Branch in the Division of Adolescent and School Health.

Dr. Barrios received a Doctorate of Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, a Master of Science in Behavioral Sciences from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Rochester.