Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D.

Margaret Hamburg, M.D., is a senior scientist with the Nuclear Threat Initiative in Washington, D.C. NTI is a charitable organization working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.

Dr. Hamburg began her service with NTI as the founding Vice President for Biological Threats, developing the strategic plan and grant-making portfolio in that area, as well as the creation of the Global Health and Security Initiative to address the broad range of biological threats to health. Before joining NTI, Dr. Hamburg was the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, serving as principal policy advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Her responsibilities included policy formulation and analysis, the development and review of regulations and/or legislation, budget analysis, strategic planning, and the conduct and coordination of policy research and program evaluation.

Prior to this role, Dr. Hamburg served for almost six years as the Commissioner of Health for the City of New York. As Chief Health Officer in the nation's largest city, her many accomplishments included design and implementation of an internationally recognized tuberculosis control program that produced dramatic declines in tuberculosis cases; the development of initiatives that raised childhood immunization rates to record levels; and the creation of the first public health bioterrorism preparedness program in the nation. Dr Hamburg also served as the Assistant Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Dr. Hamburg is a graduate of Harvard/Radcliffe College and Harvard Medical School. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the New York Hospital/Cornell University Medical Center and is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Hamburg currently serves on the Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as on the Board of Rockefeller University, Henry Schein Inc., The Trust for America's Health, The Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, Sidwell Friends School, and Doctors of the World. She has been elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences, where, among other things, she serves as a member of the IOM Council, a member of the Microbial Threats Forum, chair of the IOM Board on Global Health, chair of the Biological Threats Panel, and member of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control (CISAC). Dr. Hamburg is also an elected member of the New York Academy of Medicine, the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science and of the American College of Physicians. She serves on numerous advisory boards and committees, including the Central Intelligence Agency's Intelligence Science Board, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services' Council on Public Health Preparedness, and the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response Department of the World Health Organization. She is a former member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers and the Visiting Committee for the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Hamburg is the author of numerous scientific and policy papers. She is frequently asked to lecture, provide testimony at Congressional hearings and give media interviews. She is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Radcliffe Alumnae Award, the Lung Association Breath of Life Award and several Honorary Degrees.

Dr. Hamburg lives in Washington D.C. with her husband, Peter Brown, and their two children, Rachel and Evan Brown.