Gould - Leadership

Deborah Gould, PhD

Senior Advisor for Partnerships

Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance

Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services

Office of Public Health Scientific Services

Deborah Gould, PhD, is the senior advisor for partnerships in the Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance (DHIS). Dr. Gould has served with CDC for more than 20 years overseeing a variety of public health programs. Dr. Gould specializes in program planning and management, health education and training, and public health program evaluation.

Prior to DHIS, Dr. Gould was senior advisor in the Division of Behavioral Surveillance, Public Health Surveillance and Informatics Program Office, where she served as project leader for the Gulf States Population Survey. The survey monitored the mental health status of Gulf Coast residents affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dr. Gould began her career at CDC in 1995 in the Division of Health Education, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. There she was co-leader of the Psychosocial Effects project, which examined the effects of psychological stress occurring among persons living near hazardous waste sites.

Dr. Gould then advanced to CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health where she served as a behavioral scientist and co-principal investigator for Project CHOICES, an intervention study aimed at preventing fetal alcohol syndrome among pregnant women.

In her next assignment, Dr. Gould was the health education specialist for the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Branch in CDC’s Epidemiology Program Office. In this position she planned, coordinated, and implemented training programs for EIS officers.

Then, from 2006–2010, Dr. Gould served as associate director for workforce development in CDC's Office for Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR). In that role, she directed a portfolio of workforce development activities, including workforce planning and analysis, leadership training and succession planning, and the annual OPHPR employee satisfaction survey.

Dr. Gould participated in public health emergency-response activities to the 2001 anthrax attacks, 2004 SARS pandemic, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2014 Ebola Epidemic in West Africa.

Dr. Gould earned doctorate and master-of-science degrees in experimental psychology from the University of Georgia. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of South Alabama.