Staff Bio
Kathleen Ethier, PhD
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Dr. Ethier directs CDC's school health activities that promote the health and well-being of adolescents through school-based programs, data collection, and scientific research and evaluation.
Role at CDC
Dr. Kathleen Ethier is director of CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH). She leads efforts to promote young people's health and well-being through school-based surveillance, research and evaluation, and school-based-programs. Since 2016, she has provided DASH leadership and strategic direction for developing and implementing science-based programs and social context interventions for adolescents. She has focused the division's efforts on documenting young people's health behaviors and experiences as well as the policies and practices being implemented in their schools, and exploring the role parents, families, schools, health care providers and communities play in promoting and supporting the health of young people.
Previous experience
Dr. Ethier joined CDC in 1999 as a senior scientist in the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention's Division of STD Prevention. She went on to serve in leadership positions in many CDC offices and programs, including CDC's Office of the Director, where she was the director of the Program Performance and Evaluation Office, acting director of the Financial Management Office, and deputy director for the Office of the Associate Director for Program. Dr. Ethier served as the Associate Director of Public Health Practice in the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and as the acting director for the Division of Oral Health. She also served as Adolescent Health Goal Team Leader for the agency. Dr. Ethier has more recently provided her expertise on CDC's MPox and COVID-19 Emergency Responses.
Education
Dr. Ethier earned her PhD in social psychology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Before her federal service, Dr. Ethier spent 6 years on the research faculty at Yale University studying HIV, STDs, and unplanned pregnancy prevention among women and adolescents. Her research has primarily focused on psychosocial, behavioral, and environmental factors related to adolescent mental and physical health.