Tom Frieden, MD, MPH
Dr. Tom Frieden is the world’s leading public health expert. Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 2009 to 2017, Frieden led the CDC’s work that helped end the Ebola epidemic. Over the course of his career, he controlled the largest outbreak of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis ever to occur in the United States, established the largest effective tuberculosis control program in the world in India, and directed efforts that led to a rapid increase in life expectancy in New York City. Because of his leadership at CDC, Americans are safer from antibiotic resistance, foodborne and healthcare-associated infections, drug overdose, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and exposure to dangerous pathogens from other countries.
A physician trained in internal medicine, infectious diseases, public health, and epidemiology, Frieden has published cutting-edge, widely cited research on a broad range of topics. He has transformed the organizations he has led, creating global models of increased employee morale, engaged communities, rigorous accountability, and impact.
As New York City Health Commissioner from 2002-2009, Dr. Frieden helped reduce smoking, eliminate artificial trans fats from restaurants, eliminate colon cancer screening disparities, and initiate the country’s largest community-based electronic health records project.
From 1992-1996, he led New York City’s tuberculosis control program that reduced multidrug-resistant cases by 80 percent. Dr. Frieden then worked in India helping build a tuberculosis control program that has saved more than three million lives.
Dr. Frieden received medical and public health degrees from Columbia University, infectious diseases training at Yale University, and was an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at CDC. He has written more than 200 scientific publications. Follow
Dr. Frieden on Twitter (@DrFrieden).