Daniel Jernigan

Daniel Jernigan, MD, MPH, is the Acting Deputy Director for Public Health Science and Surveillance (DDPHSS) at CDC. In this position, he is responsible for strengthening CDC’s scientific foundation by working across the Office of Science, the Office of Laboratory Science and Safety, the Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, and the National Center for Health Statistics. A primary focus of Dr. Jernigan’s role is to provide leadership for CDC’s Data Modernization Initiative and serve as an advisor to the CDC Director.

When not serving as acting deputy director for DDPHSS, Dr. Jernigan is the director of the Influenza Division in CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). Prior to his appointment as director, Dr. Jernigan served as deputy director of the Influenza Division from 2006-2014.

Dr. Jernigan joined the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service in 1994 and worked in the Respiratory Diseases Branch on the prevention and control of bacterial respiratory pathogens. In 1996, he began serving on assignment from CDC to the Washington State Health Department as a medical epidemiologist and coordinator of national initiatives to improve surveillance for emerging infectious diseases. Dr. Jernigan became the chief of the Epidemiology Section in CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) in 2001. In that role, he supervised numerous investigations and initiatives to characterize various hospital-acquired, device-associated, and antimicrobial-resistant pathogen issues.

He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on various emerging infectious diseases topics, and has supervised outbreak investigations of viral, bacterial, and fungal infections associated with emerging and antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. Dr. Jernigan has also led epidemiology and surveillance teams for national and international responses, including the 2001 bioterrorism-related anthrax, the 2002 emergence of West Nile virus, the 2003 SARS epidemic, the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, Ebola, and the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Jernigan received an undergraduate degree from Duke University, a Doctor of Medicine from Baylor College of Medicine, and a Master of Public Health from the University of Texas. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and has completed an additional residency in Preventive Medicine. Upon completing 23 years of service in 2019, Dr. Jernigan retired from the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service as a Captain.