Leandris Liburd, PhD, MPH, MA

Director, Office of Minority Health and Health Equity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Leandris Liburd, PhD, MPH, MA, is the Director of the Office of Minority Health and Health Equity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In this role, she oversees the work of CDC’s Offices of Minority Health & Health Equity and Women’s Health, and of Diversity & Inclusion Management. In addition, she provides agency leadership, direction, and accountability for CDC’s policies and programs to ensure they are effective in improving women’s and minority health. She also serves as the agency’s principal advisor on health equity issues with the Department of Health and Human Services, other federal agencies, national organizations, academic institutions, and the public.

Dr. Liburd is a respected public health leader who has over the course of her career championed community health promotion, chronic disease prevention, community engagement, eliminating health disparities, and addressing the social determinants of health. She has worked in public health at the local, state, and federal levels, and has held a variety of leadership positions at CDC since joining the agency in 1987. Dr. Liburd has published extensively on community-based public health approaches to chronic disease prevention and control, the influence of culture and gender on health beliefs and behaviors, and racial and ethnic health disparities. In 2010, she published her first edited volume Diabetes and Health Disparities: Community-Based Approaches for Racial and Ethnic Populations which serves as a key resource for those interested in socio-ecological approaches to reducing diabetes disparities.

Dr. Liburd holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, a Master of Public Health in health education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Master of Arts in cultural anthropology and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in medical anthropology from Emory University.