A CDC public health advisor reflects on a career spent breaking down program silos, turning data into action, and leading high-impact operations—from STD clinics in the early HIV epidemic to a a $92 million/month operation at a federal Emergency Intake Site for unaccompanied migrant children.

This CDC scientist spent more than three decades helping protect children from paralysis. Work advancing PCR testing, genetic sequencing, and global laboratory training informed vaccination strategy in 131 countries and helped drive wild poliovirus to the brink of eradication.

Before there were smartphones, before smallpox was eradicated, before vaccine safety systems were formalized—there were people making decisions in real time. This CDC historian and collections manager worked to preserve those moments. By restoring artifacts, cataloging decades of materials, and building a public oral history archive, this historian helped safeguard the human stories behind the science so future generations could learn from them.