Position Title
Director, NSF Center for Pandemic Insights
Director, EpiCenter for Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence
Christine Kreuder Johnson is Professor of Epidemiology and Ecosystem Health. Her work is committed to transdisciplinary research to characterize impacts of environmental change on animal and human health, inform preparedness for emerging threats, and guide public policy at the intersection of emerging disease and environmental health.
Professor Johnson’s research has pioneered new approaches to characterization of emerging threats and disease dynamics at the animal-human interface in rapidly changing landscapes that constitute “fault lines” for disease emergence, disease spillover and subsequent spread. Her work aims to serve pressing research needs at the boundaries of science and policy, such as investigations into early indicators of unusual morbidity and mortality in wildlife, impacts of land use and climate change on disease in populations, and conservation and public health implications of movement of pathogens across ecosystem boundaries.
She is the Director for NSF Center for Pandemic Insights, a multi-institution consortium catalyzing transdisciplinary scientific and technical innovations to advance our ability to characterize the pre-emergence of pandemics. She also leads the EpiCenter for Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence, one of NIAID’s Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases, which together with an international team of scientists is investigating drivers for spillover and spread of emerging viruses.
She served as US Science Envoy for the US Department of State, traveling to four continents to advance science diplomacy and international collaboration. Her most rewarding professional experiences have been to support science-based decision making to inform conservation and public health policies. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). At UC Davis, she teaches One Health and ecosystem health and fosters a training program in applied research in wildlife epidemiology and disease ecology at the animal-human interface.