Jordan W. Tappero, MD, MPH

Senior Advisor for Global Health, Center for Global Health (CGH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

RADM Jordan W. Tappero, MD, MPH is Senior Advisor for Global Health, Center for Global Health (CGH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As Senior Advisor, he provides strategic scientific and programmatic contributions to the Office of the Director’s (CGH/OD) management and oversight of a $3.7 billion annual budget. This work represents four large, dynamic divisions (Division of Global Health Protection, Division of Global HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis, Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, and the Global Immunization Division) working across more than 60 CDC Country Offices, and with multinational organizations, non-government organizations, philanthropies and other domestic and global partners. Dr. Tappero also executes CGH/OD’s efforts to institutionalize the agency’s Global Health Security program. Dr. Tappero brings over 24 years of extensive global experience to this key leadership position, including 11 years residing overseas where he served as CDC Country Director.

Prior to his current role, Dr. Tappero served with CGH as Director for the Division of Global Health Protection, where he led CDC’s Global Health Security implementation efforts from December 2013 through August 2016, working with Ministries of Health across the globe to build capacity through training in surveillance and outbreak investigation, laboratory strengthening for specimen referral networks and diagnostics, public health research, and the development of National Public Health Institutes to bolster health security and prevent disease, disability and death from communicable and non-communicable disease.

Dr. Tappero has broad experience in managing complex humanitarian disasters and public health emergencies. He was a leader in CDC’s West African Ebola Response, serving in Liberia in August and September 2014 as the first CDC Lead for the Public Health and Medical Response within USG’s Disaster Assistance Response Team. From October 2014 – February 2015, he served as Deputy Incident Manager for the Ebola Response out of CDC’s Emergency Operations Center, where he directed day-to-day international and domestic response activities. From January 2010 – April 2011, he served as Incident Manager for CDC’s response to Haiti’s devastating earthquake and follow-on cholera epidemic, and through December 2012, he directed CDC’s Health Systems Reconstruction Office to implement a $196 million health systems recovery program in Haiti. From August – December 2009, Dr. Tappero served as the CDC’s senior liaison to the HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response for the 2009 H1N1 Flu Pandemic.

In 2013, Dr. Tappero served as the CGH Associate Director for Science, where he provided scientific leadership and oversight for CDC’s public health activities globally. From August 2008 – July 2009, he served as Acting Deputy Director for CDC’s Division of Global HIV/AIDS, contributing the toe success of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. In this capacity, he helped manage CDC’s $1.7 billion dollar annual program, providing technical support for over 1700 direct hire and locally employed staff serving across 43 country program offices.

Dr. Tappero joined CDC in July 1992 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer, is a Rear Admiral and Assistant Surgeon General in the USPHS, holds three American Board Certifications, a Masters’ in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley, and an academic appointment as Adjunct Assistant Professor with Emory University’s School of Medicine. He has authored or co-authored over 260 peer-reviewed publications, as well as textbook chapters on HIV, TB, malaria, meningococcal disease, leptospirosis, Ebola and Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever, cholera and other emerging infections.