Dr. Julie Gerberding is Executive Vice President and Chief Patient Officer at Merck & Co., Inc., where she is responsible for global public policy, patient engagement and advocacy, strategic communications, population health, and corporate responsibility. She joined Merck in 2010 as president of Merck vaccines.  

Dr. Gerberding was Director of the U.S. CDC from 2002-2009, where she led the agency through more than 40 emergency responses to public health crises.  She serves on the executive committee of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) board and is a board member of Cerner Corporation and MSD Wellcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories, a non-profit that develops new vaccine technologies for developing countries.  She also co-chairs the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security.   

Dr. Gerberding has received more than 50 awards and honors, including the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Distinguished Service Award for her leadership in responses to anthrax bioterrorism and the September 11, 2001 attacks.  In 2018, she was selected as the Healthcare Businesswomen Association’s Woman of the Year.  

Dr. Gerberding received her undergraduate and M.D. degrees from Case Western Reserve University.  She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology and Infectious Diseases at the University of California, San Francisco, where she is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine.  Dr. Gerberding received a Masters of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley.  She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American College of Physicians.  She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases.