Today is World Hepatitis Day. The WHO and CDC commemorate this day by raising awareness of hepatitis and educating people about the burden of viral hepatitis infections and the actions we can take to prevent their spread. 

MSIH Alumna Noele Nelson, MD, PhD, MPH (Class of 2004) serves as the Chief of the Prevention Branch within the Division of Viral Hepatitis at the CDC. Her current work focuses on increasing access to preventive services, including vaccination, testing, care and treatment for persons at risk for viral hepatitis, advancing progress toward global elimination of viral hepatitis as a public health threat.

Dr. Noele credits her MSIH education for providing a strong foundation for her career in public health.

She shared, ”MSIH prepared me for a career in global and domestic infectious disease epidemiology, emergency response and vaccinology at the CDC. The MSIH education and clinical experiences instilled in me the importance of recognizing and addressing pervasive health disparities, which is critical to improving health care outcomes, and inspired me to hold a leadership position in public health and disease prevention.” 

Dr. Nelson is trained in Incident Management and has responded to multiple global and domestic public health emergencies, including serving in multiple roles in CDC’s COVID-19 response, CDC’s Ebola and Zika response and serving as vaccine lead for hepatitis A outbreaks.

Dr. Nelson completed her residency training in pediatrics at Georgetown University Medical Center. She holds a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Ben-Gurion University and a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Boston University.