Dr. Rochelle Walensky

Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, is an infectious disease physician and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She currently serves in academic and leadership roles across Harvard, bringing clinical insight and decision science to advancing patient care and public health. Her clinical work centers on general infectious diseases, prevention-focused care for viral infections, and health systems approaches to improving care delivery in diverse settings. Her research interests include decision science and health economics, mathematical modeling to inform policy and clinical strategy, and outbreak preparedness and response. Walensky previously served as the 19th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and she was Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and Co-Director of the Medical Practice Evaluation Center. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a recipient of the NIH MERIT Award, the HIVMA Research Award, and Washington University in St. Louis Arts & Sciences’ Distinguished Alumni Award, and she serves on the boards of the Doris Duke Foundation and The Carter Center. She earned her MD from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, completed an internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, completed an infectious disease fellowship through the Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women’s Hospital program, and received an MPH in Clinical Effectiveness from the Harvard School of Public Health.