Umed A. Ajani, MBBS, MPH

Associate Director for Science

Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance

Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services

Deputy Director for Public Health Science and Surveillance

Umed A. Ajani, MBBS, MPH, is the associate director for science in the Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance (DHIS); Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services.

Dr. Ajani brings to this assignment an impressive portfolio of public health experience and expertise in multiple prominent positions, including senior science advisor, research scientist, and program leader. During his time at DHIS, he has supported major surveillance systems housed within the division and worked though multiple major updates of both case-based and syndromic surveillance. He contributes to improve scientific rigor and approach of surveillance and works with division staff to ensure scientific integrity and maintain quality of scientific work. He has participated in the Global Rapid Response Team and supported various emergency response efforts of the agency, both domestically and overseas.

Prior to this position, he served as the associate director for surveillance and as acting chief of the Surveillance and Information Support Branch in DHIS.

Before joining DHIS, Dr. Ajani held other positions within CDC:

• acting director of the Division of Notifiable Diseases and Healthcare Information in the former Public Health Surveillance and Informatics Program Office;
• lead epidemiologist in the Cancer Surveillance Branch, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion;
• epidemiologist in the Behavioral Surveillance Branch, Division of Adult and Community Health, in the former National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention; and
• senior scientific advisor and leader of the Analytic Research and Surveillance Team in the Office on Smoking and Health.

Before joining CDC, Dr. Ajani was a faculty member at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, School of Public Health. In addition to teaching public health and medical school students, Dr. Ajani made significant contributions to helping the university’s School of Public Health acquire its initial accreditation from the Council on Education for Public Health and developing and implementing a new curriculum at the medical school. As a faculty member, Dr. Ajani also served as an expert advisor to local, county, and state health departments and was a member of the Texas Board of Health’s Advisory Committee on Prostate Cancer. He received awards for outstanding support in developing and implementing new curriculum and outstanding faculty member at the University of North Texas Health Science Center.

Before teaching at the University of North Texas for 10 years, Dr. Ajani was an epidemiologist and teaching faculty member at the Harvard Medical School. While at Harvard, he was involved in several large-scale epidemiology studies. He was also a co-director of the Physicians’ Health Study II and director of Data Analysis, Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine.

Dr. Ajani has written/co-authored more than 90 articles in professional publications. These include articles published in national and international scientific journals, various reports, and a book chapter. He has published 45 abstracts and made several presentations at national and international conferences. He also is a recipient of CDC’s prestigious Charles C. Shepard Award.

Dr. Ajani received his master of public health degree from Yale University and his medical degree from the Sind Medical College in Pakistan.