OT:CDC director to headline AVMA Opening Session in D.C.

[Guest guest]

CDC director to headline AVMA Opening Session in D.C.

American Veterinary Medical Association - Schaumburg,IL*

http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/jul07/070701g.asp

L. Gerberding, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention, is the keynote speaker at the Opening Session of the

144th AVMA Annual Convention in Washington, D.C.

The Opening Session is Saturday, July 14, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30

a.m. in the Washington Convention Center Ballroom. Doors open at 7

a.m., and seating is on a first come, first served basis. Coffee,

juice, fruit, and pastries will be available.

Dr. Gerberding will discuss why veterinarians are key to achieving

optimal public health and why the CDC has listed zoonotic diseases

as a top priority. The CDC director will also touch on why now, more

than ever, veterinary medicine is important to the well-being of the

United States and the world.

Before becoming CDC director and Agency for Toxic Substances and

Disease Registry administrator, Dr. Gerberding was acting deputy

director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases. There she

played a major role in leading CDC's response to the anthrax

bioterrorism events of 2001.

Dr. Gerberding joined the CDC in 1998 as director of the Division of

Healthcare Quality Promotion at NCID where she developed the

agency's patient safety initiatives and other programs to prevent

infections, antimicrobial resistance, and medical errors in health

care settings.

In addition to her duties at the CDC, Dr. Gerberding is a clinical

professor of medicine at Emory University and an associate professor

of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco.