Purpose
This session will focus on methodologies for measuring vaccine effectiveness. Experts will examine various approaches and applications across settings, discuss strengths and limitations, and explore how differing interpretations of the evidence inform public health practice.
Jun 10, 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM ET
Upcoming Event
Session Agenda
Opening Remarks by Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, Senior Official Carrying out the Delegable Duties of the CDC Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Hosted and Moderated by RDML Althea Grant-Lenzy, PhD, Assistant Surgeon General, USPHS; CDC Chief Science Officer and Director of CDC’s Office of Science
Panelists:
- Martin Kulldorff, PhD, Chief Science Officer, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), Department of Health and Human Services
- Emily Toth Martin, PhD, MPH, Professor, Epidemiology, Director of Doctoral Studies, Epidemiology, Co-Director, Michigan Center for Respiratory Virus Research and Response, Co-Director, Michigan Public Health Integrated Center for Outbreak Analytics and Modeling; University of Michigan School of Public Health
- Natalie E. Dean, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
Moderated Panel Discussion
Q & A Session
Panelists
Martin Kulldorff, PhD, is a biostatistician and epidemiologist serving as the Chief Science and Data Officer in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation, Office of the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Kulldorff was previously a Professor at Harvard Medical School. For vaccine and drug safety surveillance, pharmacoepidemiology and the early detection of disease outbreaks, Dr. Kulldorff has developed statistical methods that are widely used in national, state, and local health agencies in the United States and around the world.
Emily Toth Martin PhD, MPH, has a body of work that spans community, hospital, and ambulatory settings and includes major contributions to improving observational study designs and understanding immune correlates of protection. She leads large field and laboratory teams, serves as a core investigator in multiple CDC and NIAID national research networks, and directs the Michigan Center for Respiratory Virus Research and Response.
Dr. Martin holds a PhD and MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Washington and a BS in Microbiology from the University of Michigan, has held faculty roles at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan, and is recognized with multiple awards for her leadership and contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Natalie Dean, PhD, has a body of work that focuses on statistical methods for infectious disease research, particularly vaccine evaluation and clinical trial design during outbreaks. She has led methodological work on vaccine effectiveness studies, including the test-negative design, and has collaborated on studies of COVID-19, influenza, dengue, chikungunya, Ebola, and other infectious diseases.
Dr. Dean is Director of the Summer Institute in Statistics and Modeling in Infectious Diseases (SISMID) and Deputy Director of Emory's CDC-funded Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analytics & Training Hub (CIDMATH). She also serves as Chief Statistical Advisor for Infectious Diseases at Nature Medicine. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was active in scientific communication and public engagement, with commentary and writing appearing in major scientific journals and national media outlets including The New York Times and The Washington Post.