Coletta - Leadership

Michael A. Coletta, MPH

Program Manager, National Syndromic Surveillance Program

Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance

Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services

Office of Public Health Scientific Services

Michael A. Coletta, MPH, is the program manager for the National Syndromic Surveillance Program in the Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance. Previously, he worked in the Behavioral & Clinical Surveillance Branch in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention as the survey application coordinator.

Mr. Coletta has extensive and diverse experience in public health practice at the state and local level. He started his career as a CDC Public Health Advisor in Chicago’s STD program in 1993; served as a district epidemiologist, knowledge analyst, surveillance epidemiologist, and STD unit director in Georgia; and coordinated the Enhanced Surveillance Program in Virginia.

Since 2002, Mr. Coletta has been committed to enhancing surveillance for public health practice. During his career, he developed the pilot syndromic surveillance system for the Georgia Division of Public Health in preparation for the 2004 G8 Summit, served as the coordinator of enhanced surveillance in Virginia for 7 years, served on the ESSENCE Enhanced Surveillance Operating Group for the national capital region, presented a syndromic surveillance poster at the 2006 International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) Conference that received honorable mention, and served as the master of ceremony for the 2008 EARS conference held in Boston.

Mr. Coletta has been very active in ISDS since its inception. From 2010–2011, he chaired the ISDS Meaningful Use workgroup that published “The Core Processes and Electronic Health Record Requirements of Public Health Syndromic Surveillance,” which led to the Public Health Information Network Messaging Guide for Syndromic Surveillance.

Mr. Coletta’s knowledge and interest in public health informatics led to his role as national informatics analyst with the National Association of County and City Health Officials. He further applied his informatics skills to improve processes with the intelligent use of technology in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at CDC. In 2013, Mr. Coletta developed and taught a graduate-level course in biosurveillance as an adjunct professor with George Mason University.

Mr. Coletta’s interest lies in enhancing public health practice while using public health informatics and a practical knowledge of epidemiology.

He received his master of public health degree from the University of Texas School of Public Health. His thesis was titled “Serological Reactivity To Acanthamoeba spp. in Selected Populations.”