Dr Jeffrey Koplan
Director
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr Jeffrey P. Koplan has actively worked towards polio eradication
for many years. He has provided leadership for the STOP (Stop Transmission
of Polio) initiative, launched in January 1999, to provide technical
field staff to assist local teams. He recently returned from a visit
to Bangladesh where he was working alongside local health workers and
field supervisors.
Born in 1945, Dr Koplan was a medical student at Mount Sinai School
of Medicine and later went on to obtain a master's degree in public
health at Harvard University. He began his public health career at CDC
in the Epidemic Intelligence Service, investigating and controlling
outbreaks. In two decades at CDC, his career has touched on virtually
every major area of public health. Dr Koplan shared in one of CDC's
greatest triumphs when he joined the team that eradicated smallpox in
the mid-70s. He became the first director of the new National Center
for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion within CDC in 1989.
He also spent five years in the private sector as director and president
of the Prudential Center for Health Care Research from 1994 to 1998.
Dr Koplan was named CDC director in July 1998 and moved into the post
in October of that year.
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