Welcome to NCEH/ATSDR, Dr. Ikeda!

NCEH/ATSDR recently welcomed its new interim director, Robin Ikeda, MD, MPH, (Captain, U.S. Public Health Service). CDC Director, Dr. Tom Freiden, selected Dr. Ikeda for the new NCEH/ATSDR role. This role is in addition to her responsibilities as CDC Deputy Director, Office of Noncommunicable Diseases, Injury and Environmental Health. Read on for more insight into her background and current priorities for the center.

“I was an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer, class of 1991, assigned to the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control at the New York State Department of Health. It was great! I had just come from clinical medicine, but I fell in love with public health. Right away I knew that public health was it for me.”

“When I went to medical school I had an advisor who suggested EIS. As I did my clinical work and worked as an attending physician, he kept reminding me to explore public health and consider EIS. I worked for several years at a Level 1 trauma center in New York City, where day after day I saw one injury after another. That got me wondering about preventing injury in the first place. Although I did my EIS training in communicable disease, I kept thinking about injury prevention. And here I am.”

“I’ll work to advance NCEH/ATSDR’s mission to protect people from threats in the environment, including protecting people from harmful chemical exposures. My priorities are making sure our center’s vision and strategy are clear and that we are clear about implementation and making an impact.”

For more stories about the work and accomplishments of NCEH/ATSDR, read the Your Health, Your Environment blog.