Position Title
Professor of Epidemiology and Ecosystem Health
Director, EpiCenter for Disease Dynamics
Christine Kreuder Johnson is Professor of Epidemiology and Ecosystem Health and Director of the EpiCenter for Disease Dynamics. 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. This work involves surveillance in wildlife and people with acute febrile illness in close contact with wildlife that are potential reservoirs for infectious disease. Her activities 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 harmful algal blooms and land-to-sea movement of pathogens in coastal systems.
To advance an understanding of environment and climate-related drivers for spillover and spread of ebolaviruses, coronaviruses, and arboviruses at the forest-urban ecosystem edge in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, she leads the EpiCenter for Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence, one of NIAID’s Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID), and the Pathogen Plasticity Project, an NSF Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) project. She also designed new approaches to animal and human surveillance in 30 resource-limited countries for USAID’s Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT program in partnership with public health, agricultural, and environmental government partners to inform on public health risk. Her most rewarding professional experiences have been to support science-based decision making and public policy by providing epidemiologic support, congressional briefings, and invited testimony to state and federal governments and intergovernmental international partners.
Dr. Johnson was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in 2021 and is an Honorary Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Throughout 2023, she has served as a U.S. Science Envoy, traveling to Laos, Singapore, Costa Rica, Peru, Uganda, and Kenya to advance science diplomacy and strengthen connections between in-country researchers, government partners, and the broader scientific community. 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.