Dr. Ron Moolenaar serves as the Associate Director for Science and lead for the Office of Science and Strategic Information in the Division of Global Health Protection (DGHP) at U.S. CDC. Prior to this role, he served as Country Director and DGHP Program Director in China from 2014-2018 and before that as Editor-in-Chief for the Mortality and Morbidly Weekly Report (MMWR) from 2010 to 2014. He joined CDC in 1992 as an EIS Officer in the National Center for Environmental Health. In 1993 Dr. Moolenaar participated in the initial CDC investigation of a previously unknown viral hemorrhagic fever virus later known as Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome. Dr. Moolenaar has served in several positions at CDC, including with the Immunization Services Division, the Division of Field Epidemiology, the Oklahoma State Department of Health as Deputy State Epidemiologist, the Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, and the Center for Global Health (CGH). While in CGH from 2007-2010, his responsibilities included providing leadership and technical support to Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETPs) in China and India and leading the team charged with helping to start a new FETP in Iraq. He served in a leadership role in the Hurricane Katrina response effort and as Epidemiology Team Leader on an Applied Public Health Response Team.

Dr. Moolenaar earned his medical degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He earned a master’s degree in public health in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, completed the CDC Preventive Medicine Residency, and is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine. He is a Captain in the U.S. Public Health Service. He has authored or co-authored scientific articles on a wide variety of public health topics, including infectious diseases, injury prevention, environmental health, surveillance, and disaster response.