Speakers: CDC Leadership

Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH

Rochelle P. Walensky is the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. She is an influential scholar whose pioneering research has helped advance the national and global response to HIV/AIDS. Dr. Walensky is also a well-respected expert on the value of testing and treatment of deadly viruses.

Dr. Walensky served as Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2017-2020 and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2012-2020. She served on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted research on vaccine delivery and strategies to reach underserved communities.

Dr. Walensky is recognized internationally for her work to improve HIV screening and care in South Africa and nationally recognized for motivating health policy and informing clinical trial design and evaluation in a variety of settings.

She is a past Chair of the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council at the National Institutes of Health, Chair-elect of the HIV Medical Association, and previously served as an advisor to both the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Originally from Maryland, Dr. Walensky received her Bachelor of Arts from Washington University in St. Louis, her Doctor of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and her Master’s in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Debra Houry, MD, MPH

Debra Houry, MD, MPH, is the Acting Principal Deputy Director of CDC. Since 2014, Dr. Houry served as director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) at CDC. In this role, she led innovative research and science-based programs to prevent injuries and violence and to reduce their consequences.

Dr. Houry previously served as vice chair and associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and as an associate professor at the Rollins School of Public Health. Dr. Houry also served as an attending physician at Emory University Hospital and Grady Memorial Hospital and as the director of Emory Center for Injury Control.

Dr. Houry has participated on numerous public health boards and committees. She has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and has received numerous awards throughout her career including the APHA Jay Drotman award. Dr. Houry received her MD and MPH degrees from Tulane University and completed her residency training in emergency medicine at Denver Health Medical Center.

Robin D. Bailey Jr., MA

Robin Bailey, Jr. is CDC’s chief operating officer. In this role, he provides executive oversight of CDC’s financial resources, human resources strategy and workforce development, information technology services, and the safety and security of CDC’s workforce and facilities. He also serves as the co-chair of CDC’s Diversity and Inclusion Executive Steering Committee.

Mr. Bailey has more than 30 years of federal service in various senior-level positions at the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of the Air Force. Most recently, he served as the human capital officer at IRS. In addition, Mr. Bailey is an Air Force veteran and served as an Air Force civilian in a wide range of leadership positions.

Mr. Bailey holds an undergraduate degree from Park College (now Park University) in Parkville, Missouri, and an MA in communications from the University of Oklahoma.

Sylana A. Tramble

Sylana A. Tramble serves as director of the Human Resources Office (HRO) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, GA. She also serves as the agency’s chief human capital officer. She joins CDC from the U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM) in San Antonio, TX, where she served as director of human resources. In this role, she provided advisory and program execution guidance for the full range of military personnel, civilian personnel, education, readiness, resiliency, and transition services for the more than 90 U.S. Army installations globally.

Before IMCOM, Sylana led the Operational Directorate of the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Human Capital Office and the Talent Acquisition Division from 2019 to 2021. Sylana provided the full range of human resource services to more than 82,000 staff throughout IRS, including classification, recruitment, hiring, personnel security, employee and labor relations, benefits, and payroll.

In June 2016, Sylana was appointed to the Senior Executive Service and assigned as deputy director of the Human Resources Directorate in the Department of Defense’s Washington Headquarters Services. She served as the principal adviser to the deputy chief management officer’s director of administration in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. She worked closely with the director of Washington Headquarters Services and other senior Department of Defense officials on the full range of human resources management and personnel security. Sylana previously served at the Air Force Personnel Center as the director of the Personnel Programs Directorate, where she was responsible for interpreting and implementing personnel policies and procedures that established standards for military and civilian personnel programs and delivering human resource model platforms across the department. During her 22 years as a civil servant in the Department of Defense, she held a variety of positions in the Air Force and Marine Corps, including branch chief for recruitment and placement and key positions at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan.

Sylana holds a bachelor’s of science degree in English from McMurry University in Abilene, Texas, and is pursuing a master’s of science degree in family studies from Amberton University in Garland, Texas.