Aaron M. Harris, MD, MPH, FACP
As part of CDC Moving Forward, we're forming a new Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology. Stay tuned to this website for updates.
Acting Chief, Surveillance and Data Branch, Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance
Chief, Public Health Modernization Advisory Unit
Commander, United States Public Health Service
Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services
Aaron M. Harris, MD, MPH, FACP, is acting chief, Surveillance and Data Branch (SDB), Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance, where he oversees activities for the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) and the National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP). In this role, he manages SDB efforts to modernize and maximize the quality, timeliness, and analytic use of national disease surveillance data for the rapid dissemination of critical public health information across federal, state, and local levels.
Dr. Harris has many years of experience leading public health research and program evaluation using surveillance data. He has served in numerous outbreak responses, including several leadership roles. He also supports the COVID-19 response as deputy task force lead, section lead, and senior clinical advisor on the Healthcare Data Section of the Data, Analytics, and Visualization Task Force, focusing on expanding data sources and standard practices for electronic healthcare data.
He is currently the chief of the Public Health Modernization Advisory Unit, which provides advisory services on the adoption of data standards to inform public health policies; public health data modernization efforts; data exchange; informatics technologies to empower public health with richer, timelier data; and interdisciplinary collaborations in public health informatics.
Dr. Harris’ public health training began in the combined MD/MPH program at Tufts University School of Medicine. He completed his training in internal medicine at Emory University. He received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant support for global health research to prevent pneumonia in Ecuador, diarrheal disease in Bangladesh, and tuberculosis in HIV-infected patients in Uganda.
Dr. Harris joined CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer in 2012 in the Respiratory Disease Branch where he responded to multiple outbreaks and served on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for the use of pneumococcal vaccines. He joined the Division of Viral Hepatitis as a medical epidemiologist in 2014 and later served as the clinical interventions team lead where he monitored viral hepatitis care and implementation of CDC’s prevention recommendations.
Dr. Harris is board certified in clinical informatics and internal medicine and is an adjunct assistant professor of medicine at Emory University.