PROVIDENCE, RI - A national expert in health security, pandemic preparedness, biosecurity, biodefense, and bioterrorism who has worked at the highest levels of government, including serving as the special assistant to the President and senior director for Global Health Security and Biodefense for the White House National Security Council, is joining the Brown University School of Public Health as of this week.
Beth Cameron Ph.D., who recently departed the White House National Security Council post of senior director for global health security and biodefense, is joining the Brown University School of Public Health as professor of the practice of health services, policy, and practice, and will be a key member of the School's pandemic preparedness and response leadership team. She will split her time, also serving as a senior advisor for global health security in the USAID Bureau for Global Health.
“Beth Cameron will be a terrific addition to our School. She will help expand our work on pandemic preparedness and grow our footprint in D.C., and she will create opportunities for Brown students to engage with senior policy leaders,” said SPH Interim Dean Ronald Aubert. “The time is now to stay on top of lessons learned in the pandemic, build health security as a national security area, and enable more resilient and equitable responses. Beth will join Jennifer Nuzzo and others on our team in starting a pandemic center, and in collaborating across the whole university, with Brown’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, the School of Engineering, the humanities, and others. There is a lot to do and we are here to do it.”
Through her various prior leadership positions across the U.S. Government in the past 20 years, including at the U.S. State Department and Department of Defense, as well as in the Obama administration and now Biden White House, Cameron was instrumental to the COVID-19 response, to re-establishing the National Security Council Directorate on Global Health Security and Biodefense, and to developing and launching the U.S. Government’s Global Health Security Agenda; she also helped counter global biological catastrophes, and bolster health security financing. Her work has helped address homeland and national security threats by enhancing pandemic preparedness, biosecurity and biosafety; improving emerging infectious disease surveillance, and countering the development and use of biological weapons. Most recently, she helped formulate and coordinate President Biden’s international strategy for fighting COVID-19, including the recent COVID-19 summit, and led administration efforts to build national and global preparedness and financing for pandemics and other emerging threats.
“We can’t hesitate to take action as we face an age of pandemics and other health security threats, and the Brown School of Public Health is quickly becoming a leading force in driving progress,” said Cameron. “I am looking forward to what we will be able to do together at and with the School, including enabling the next generation of leaders to prepare for and combat the growing biological risks we face.”
Beth Cameron holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the Human Genetics and Molecular Biology Program at Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in Biology from the University of Virginia. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.