Wilkins - Leadership

Yescenia (Senia) Wilkins, MPH

Branch Chief, Laboratory Training and Services Branch

Division of Laboratory Systems (DLS)

Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services

Office of Public Health Scientific Services

Yescenia (Senia) Wilkins is the Branch Chief for the Training and Workforce Development Branch of DLS. She has over 12 years of work experience with the CDC in managing domestic and international public health training and communication programs in emergency preparedness and response, global migration and quarantine, and field epidemiology and laboratory.

Prior to joining DLS, Ms. Wilkins served as the Associate Director for Communication and Training for the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, National Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Infectious Diseases.  In this role she led the development of public health education materials and training programs related to the identification and control of infectious diseases among highly mobile global populations, including travelers, immigrants, and refugees.  Ms. Wilkins’ work at CDC has also been devoted to global capacity building of medical/public health professionals through field epidemiology and laboratory competency-based training programs.  She has also contributed efforts to reducing adolescent HIV infections and other sexually transmitted diseases through surveillance and school-based prevention.

Ms. Wilkins earned her Master of Public Health degree in Behavior Sciences and Health Education from Emory University and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Biology from Stanford University.