About Dr. Lisa Koonin
Lisa M. Koonin, DrPH, MN, MPH
Dr. Lisa Koonin founded Health Preparedness Partners, a private consultancy, after her 30+ year career with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
During her time with the CDC, she led the development of national preparedness plans and policies, conducted large-format exercises, and consulted with businesses, state and local governments, healthcare facilities, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, and ministries of health around the world to improve emergency preparedness.
Dr. Koonin served as a leader in multiple national and international health emergency responses while at CDC. This included the Zika response, the Ebola response, the H7N9 avian influenza outbreak in China, the H1N1 influenza pandemic, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, and the Marburg virus outbreak in Africa.
In early 2020, the CDC engaged Dr. Koonin as a Senior Advisor to provide expert advice during the launch of the CDC Emergency Operations Center as the COVID-19 pandemic was emerging in the US.
As the originator of private sector pandemic and emergency response programs at the CDC, Dr. Koonin has extensive experience working with businesses and non-governmental organizations. She combines her clinical, scientific, and emergency preparedness/response experience to assist her clients in building actionable preparedness and response plans to mitigate the impact of infectious disease and other threats.
Dr. Koonin is a frequent lecturer at national and international conferences on pandemic and infectious disease preparedness and response and has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications on an array of public health and preparedness topics.
Dr. Koonin is an experienced family nurse practitioner and epidemiologist. She earned a Master of Nursing and a Master of Public Health from Emory University, and a doctorate in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also currently serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Health in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Adjunct Professor at Indiana University’s Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health.
