On Monday, July 29, 1PM-2PM ET, NACCHO hosted a webinar with subject matter experts to present overviews of the current situations with Dengue and H5N1, also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza. Speakers included Dr. Lyle Petersen, Dr. Sonja Olsen, and Erin Burns from CDC as well as Alexis Burakoff from Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment. There was time for an audience Q&A with the presenters.
To view the call recording, click here.
If you have any questions about this event, please contact Kimberly Nalley at [email protected]. We will be provide updates and follow-up resources on this blog post.
Speakers
Dr. Lyle Peterson is the Director of NCEZID’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases (DVBD). Dr. Petersen’s career at CDC began in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) in 1985. After his EIS training, he joined CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS where he worked until 1995, serving in several posts, including the Chief of the HIV Seroepidemiology Branch. Dr. Petersen served as Deputy Director for Science of DVBD starting in 2000 until he became the division’s director in 2004. He also has experience in infectious disease outbreak investigations, having served on the National Security Staff at the White House during the 2014 Ebola Response and as Incident Manager of CDC’s Zika Response in 2016.
Dr. Petersen earned his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco, and completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Stanford University. While working in CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS, he completed CDC’s Preventive Medicine Residency Program and received a Master of Public Health degree from Emory University.
Erin Burns, MA, is the associate director for communications for CDC’s Influenza Division. In this position, she oversees communications strategy and content, including web, social media, print and broadcast media content development for seasonal, zoonotic and pandemic influenza. Erin started working on influenza communications during 2003. In 2009, during the H1N1 pandemic, Erin was the lead communicator in the Technical Services Unit, the group charged with ensuring the scientific accuracy of all content. In 2020, Erin lead communications for the first three months of CDC’s COVID-19 response. Subsequently, Erin returned to her position in the Influenza Division where she led the 2020-2021 influenza vaccination campaign with intermittent deployments to continue to support the agency’s COVID-19 response. Erin currently is the communications lead for CDC H5N1 Response.
Prior to joining CDC, Erin was the director of the publications and editorial department at CARE USA where she was responsible for concept, content, design and production of all marketing and communications printed materials and web content. Before that, Erin worked as a journalist in South America and as a communications consultant at the World Bank. Erin received an undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University and a double master’s degree from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Dr. Sonja Olsen is the Associate Director for Preparedness and Response in CDC’s Influenza Division. She is responsible for coordinating influenza pandemic preparedness activities within the Influenza Division nationally and internationally and supporting cooperation between CDC divisions in pandemic preparedness.
Prior to her current role, Dr. Olsen worked overseas and served as a senior advisor for global influenza work in CDC’s Influenza Division. Dr. Olsen has worked on outbreaks of SARS, avian influenza, the 2009 influenza pandemic, Ebola and COVID-19, and is currently the deputy incident manager for the HPAI H5N1 Response in the United States.
Dr. Alexis Burakoff, MD, MPH is the Deputy State Epidemiologist for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) where she also supervises the Medical Epidemiology Unit. She is board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Emergency Medicine. After finishing her clinical training, she served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during which time she was assigned to CDPHE.
