Director

Stephen C. Redd, MD, RADM

RADM Stephen C. Redd, MD, is Director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In his current role, Dr. Redd leads CDC's public health preparedness and response activities. His center is responsible for state and local readiness, the regulation of select agents and toxins, emergency operations, and managing the nation’s stockpile of emergency medical countermeasures.

Dr. Redd is a leader in emergency response and recovery. He joined OPHPR during a critical time, while CDC was conducting the response to the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak. During the outbreak, Dr. Redd helped ensure deployed staff stayed safe and that their work was recognized. He collaborated across the agency to help prepare for the possibility of additional cases of Ebola in the United States.

Previously, Dr. Redd served as incident commander for the 2009 H1N1 pandemic response, which was one of the longest activations of CDC’s emergency operations center. Overseeing more than 3,000 CDC staff who participated in this response, Dr. Redd ensured that 81 million people in the United States were vaccinated against H1N1.

During his long distinguished career, Dr. Redd has taken part in a wide range of disease outbreak investigations and responses, including Legionnaires’ disease, strategic development for the control of malaria, and work on the elimination of measles in the United States. Dr. Redd also led CDC’s efforts to reduce the burden of asthma in the United States while at CDC’s National Center of Environmental Health.

Dr. Redd has more than 30 years of continuous service as a Commissioned Officer. After serving as an officer in the Junior Commissioned Officer Student Training and Extern Program while in medical school, he joined the Commissioned Corps in 1985 as an Officer with CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service. In 2009, he was promoted to Rear Admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) and currently serves as an Assistant Surgeon General. 

Dr. Redd is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, a Fellow in the American College of Physicians, and a member of the Commissioned Officers Association. He received his baccalaureate degree in history from Princeton University and his medical degree with honors from the Emory University School of Medicine. He trained in medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital before completing the two-year Epidemic Intelligence Service training program at CDC.

He has authored over 120 scientific publications, including original peer reviewed research, textbook chapters, and editorials. His research has covered a broad range of topics, from evaluating the impact of air pollution regulations on carbon monoxide poisoning deaths to clinical diagnosis of malaria and pneumonia.

Dr. Redd has received numerous awards for his work – among them the USPHS Distinguished Service Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal – and is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. He is a three-time nominee and a winner of CDC’s prestigious Charles C. Shepard Science Award for outstanding scientific publication at CDC.