Dagny E. P. Olivares, MPA

Associate Director for Program Planning and Communication

As Associate Director for Program Planning and Communication within CDC’s Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support (OSTLTS), Dagny Olivares, MPA, provides leadership and guidance about development and implementation of strategies to improve communication among state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) public health officials, external partners, and CDC’s workforce. This includes planning, implementing, and evaluating health communication and promotion strategies and messages for STLT health agencies, national partners, and healthcare providers to support the OSTLTS mission.

Olivares previously worked in the Division of Emergency Operations in CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR), where she served as the deputy chief of the Emergency Risk Communication Branch (ERCB) and the deputy director of CDC’s Emergency Communication System. In that dual role, she supervised the branch’s emergency operations staff, managed the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) training program, led CDC’s Joint Information Center (JIC), and provided management and leadership support to the branch chief in the direction of ERCB. While in that position, she served as the JIC Lead in CDC’s Emergency Operations Center for the cholera outbreak in Haiti (2010‒2011); the earthquake and subsequent tsunami and radiation event in Japan (2011); Hurricane Irene (2011); the Multistate Fungal Meningitis Outbreak Investigation (2012); the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) response (2013); and the Multistate Outbreak of Cyclosporiasis (2013). When serving as chief CDC communicator for a response, Olivares led strategic communication planning, supervised JIC teams and staff, directed and reviewed emergency response communication activities, and served as a member of the response leadership team.

Immediately prior to joining OSTLTS, she worked as part of CDC’s emergency response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, alternating between her role on the JIC Leadership Team and two deployments to serve as a risk communication advisor and public affairs officer in Liberia.

During her career at CDC, Olivares has also served as the emergency communication specialist at NCEH/ATSDR (2006–2011) and as a health communication specialist at NCIPC (2001–2006). From 1998 to 2001, she worked as a communication specialist with the New York-Penn Blood Services Region of the American Red Cross.

Olivares received her MPA in Emergency Management and Policy from the University of Georgia and her BA in Public Relations, International Relations, and Political Science from Syracuse University.