Nicole Lurie, M.D., M.S.P.H. is Director of CEPI-US and Executive Director for Preparedness and Response at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Director of CEPI-US.  She is also a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine.  She served an 8-year term as Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the US Department of Health and Human Services from 2009-2017.  In that role she led the HHS response to numerous public health emergencies, ranging from infectious disease to natural and man-made disasters and is responsible for many innovations in emergency preparedness and response.  She recently served as staff to the Commonwealth Commission on a National Public Health System.  Dr. Lurie has a long history in health policy and in health services research, leading seminal work on access to and quality of care, mental health and health equity. Prior to federal service, she was the Paul O'Neill Professor of Policy Analysis at RAND, where she started and led the public health preparedness program and RAND's Center for Population Health and Health Disparities.  She has had leadership roles in academia, as Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Minnesota, as Medical Advisor to the Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Health, and as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services.  Dr. Lurie received her BA and MD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and completed her residency and public health training at UCLA.  She is recipient of numerous awards and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.  She continues to practice medicine in a community clinic in Washington DC.