Dr. Benjamin Park, CDC: speed is of utmost importance
From Take as Directed by CSIS Global Health Policy Center | Center for Strategic and International Studies
April 30, 2026 · 34 min
About this episode
Dr. Benjamin Park discusses the importance of speed in responding to health outbreaks and the role of the CDC in strengthening global health capabilities.
Dr. Benjamin Park is Director of the CDC Division of Global Health Protection that protects Americans against dangerous outbreaks by strengthening partner countries’ capabilities to detect and respond. A personal and early professional epiphany was Benjamin’s role in leading the investigation in 2012 of a fungal meningitis outbreak that struck across America, killing dozens and gravely sickening almost 800. Subsequently—accelerating during Ebola and Covid-19—CDC’s Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) has been a powerful instrument in building capabilities of partner countries, through experts based for extended periods in CDC country offices. That has generated many dramatic stories—the core of the CDC outbreaks campaign—of success in ensuring that bad things do not happen. These are stories that many Americans do not know but deserve to know.
People in this episode
Guest: Dr. Benjamin Park
Topics covered
- global health
- epidemiology
- disease outbreaks
- public health
- CDC programs
Keywords
- CDC
- global health protection
- epidemiology training
- disease outbreaks
- public health response
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: CDC, CDC Division of Global Health Protection
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