Atlanta and Macon–Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, will be the featured speaker at The Executive Forum on on Thursday, Feb. 24. She will give a breakfast presentation at 7:30 a.m. in the Presidents Dining Room in the University Center on the Macon Campus. She will give a lunch presenatation at 12 noon in the Trustees Dining Room at Mercer University’s Cecil B. Day Campus in Atlanta.
Appointed director in July 2002, Gerberding is the first woman to head the CDC. Under her leadership, the agency has soared to new heights in its ability to quickly respond to public health emergencies, including an international outbreak of SARS, avian influenza and West Nile Virus. She also led the CDC in its response to emergencies posed by hurricanes that swept through the southeastern United States during the fall of 2004 and most recently the tsunamis that hit Southeast Asia.
Prior to serving as director of the CDC, Gerberding was acting deputy director of National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), where she played a major role in leading the CDC’s response to the anthrax bioterrorism events of 2001. She joined the CDC in 1998 as director of the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion for the NCID.
Gerberding derives her passion for health protection from her experience as a physician at San Francisco General Hospital, where she has provided care to countless patients with preventable diseases. Her commitment to excellence in communication has resulted in her becoming a spokesperson the nation turns to in a time of a health crisis.
Gerberding’s accomplishments have been chronicled in the pages of Vogue, the Wall Street Journal, Glamour, USA Today, Redbook, the Lancet, and she was recognized in 2004 by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
As our nation’s leading health protection agency, the CDC works with organizations around the globe to discover causes of diseases, seek solutions and remedies, and instigate preventative measures and control.
The Executive Forum is a business outreach program of Mercer University’s Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and the Office of Advancement. The Executive Forum provides business professionals with an opportunity to hear nationally noted speakers while networking with other business leaders.
The event is open to The Executive Forum members and their guests. For membership information, call Mercer’s Office of University Advancement at (800) 837-2911.
Media planning to attend the event should contact Jenny Butkus at (478) 301-4037 or (478) 731-3668 or Tom Skinner at (404) 639-7851 or (404) 625-7579.
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