Rebecca Katz
Georgetown University
Rebecca Katz is an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security. She is a participant in the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues faculty research group on global health, as well as a member of the Global Health Initiative faculty committee.
International activities include:
- From 2004 to 2019 served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of State, working on issues related to the Biological Weapons Convention, pandemic influenza, and disease surveillance.
- Received a major award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2007 to perform a comparative study of international law and public health preparedness.
- Author or co-author of more than 60 publications with work appearing in Lancet, BMJ Global Health, New England Journal of Medicine, Public Health Reports, and Journal of Global Health.
July 19, 2023
News: Georgetown’s Center for Global Health Science and Security Launches New Policy Platform
With support from the Rockefeller Foundation, Georgetown University's Center for Global Health Science and Security has developed the Analysis and Mapping of Policies for all Emerging Infectious Diseases (AMP for EID), a first-of-its-kind policy…
February 22, 2022
News: When Will the Pandemic End?
Lawrence Gostin (O'Neill Institute) and Rebecca Katz (Center for Global Health Science and Security) were both quoted in a Foreign Affairs article about what the end of the COVID-19 pandemic might look like.
February 10, 2022
News: The Benefits of Vaccinating the World Are Clear. The Catch is the Price Tag.
Rebecca Katz (Center for Global Health Science and Security) was quoted in a recent Washington Post article, where she provided her thoughts on COVID-19 outcome-prediction models and the benefits of investing in global mRNA vaccine manufacturing…
December 8, 2021
News: The World Is Unprepared for the Next Pandemic, Report Says
Rebecca Katz (Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security) was quoted in a New York Times article, where she expressed that the world is not prepared for another pandemic because we haven’t yet had the chance to engage in “longer-term…
September 20, 2021
News: The Future of Zoonotic Risk Prediction
The Royal Society article "The future of zoonotic risk prediction" reviews technologies for surveillance of zoonotic diseases to detect and prevent future infectious threats. Georgetown-affiliated co-authors include Colin Carlson, Alexandra Phelan…
July 20, 2021
News: Nearly 120,000 Children in U.S. Have Lost a Primary Caregiver to COVID-19
Rebecca Katz (Center for Global Health Science and Security) provided expert commentary for an ABC News article about children who have lost a primary caregiver during the COVID-19 pandemic: “This is yet another horrible byproduct of the pandemic…
July 7, 2021
News: Inoculating Cities: Case Studies of Urban Pandemic Preparedness
Rebecca Katz and Matthew Boyce (Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security) are the editors of a recently published book that investigates the ways that cities have prepared for and responded to outbreaks of infectious disease.
February 22, 2021
News: New Global Data Repository and Visualization Platform
Global.health is a collaborative effort by global health experts from leading international institutions, including the Center for Global Health Science and Security's Rebecca Katz. It enables open, centralized access to real-time epidemiological…
February 1, 2021
News: The Lancet Publishes Research on Global Fund Contributions to Health Security
Global Health Science and Security Director Rebecca Katz works alongside global health experts to author a report on the Global Fund's contributions to health security. This is the first study to examine financial contributions from vertical disease…
January 19, 2021
News: Global Fund Contributions to Health Security
In The Lancet Global Health, Georgetown scholars from the Center for Global Health Science and Security discuss the Global Fund’s financial contributions to health security.
January 12, 2021
News: Online Library Chronicling 25 Years of Pandemic Preparedness Policy Launched
On January 12, Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security announced the launch of the most comprehensive collection of documents in the past 25 years of pandemic preparedness planning worldwide: "Health Security Net."
December 10, 2020
News: Health Care Management and Policy Senior’s Research Focuses on COVID-19
Samantha Schlageter (NHS’21), a health care management and policy major, has pursued several academic and extracurricular opportunities at Georgetown, including COVID-19-related research with Dr. Rebecca Katz and Dr. Michael Stoto.
September 14, 2020
News: New Report on COVID-19 and Governance Launched
On September 14 the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center released the report “Governance Preparedness: Initial Lessons from COVID-19,” pointing out the importance of re-centering governance to change…
August 3, 2020
News: Georgetown Outbreak Activity Library (GOAL) Launches
Launched July 31, 2020, the Georgetown Outbreak Activity Library (GOAL) provides a platform that shares resources throughout all phases of outbreak management, from preparedness to recovery. Georgetown University Center for Global Health Science and…
July 10, 2020
News: A Global Strategy for Shaping the Post-COVID-19 World
Georgetown professors Matthew Kroenig and Rebecca Katz are two of the co-authors on an Atlantic Council Strategy Paper examining how the United States and its allies can defeat the coronavirus pandemic and bring about a new global system.
April 23, 2020
News: New White Paper: "COVID-19: A Global Pandemic Demands a Global Response"
SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus that jumped from bats to humans, has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, the worst global health crisis in a century. That crisis, in turn, is wreaking economic havoc that could dwarf the Great Depression. Top global health…
July 17, 2019
News: Global Health Security, Law Experts Express Relief After WHO Declares DRC Ebola Outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern
Today, World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on the recommendation of the Emergency Committee, declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a Public Health Emergency of International Concern…
April 4, 2022
Unmasked: COVID, Community, and the Case of Okoboji Event
Medical anthropologist Emily Mendenhall's book Unmasked: COVID, Community, and the Case of Okoboji is the story of what happened in Okoboji, a small Iowan tourist town when a collective turn from the coronavirus to the economy occurred in the COVID…
September 9, 2021
Inoculating Cities: Case Studies of Urban Pandemic Preparedness Event
Cities and urban areas are uniquely vulnerable to large-scale infectious outbreaks due to their dense and highly mobile populations, status as global transit hubs, persistent socioeconomic inequalities, and other unique contextual factors. However…
March 19, 2021
Predict and Prevent: The Viral Emergence Research Initiative Event
Will we ever actually be able to predict and prevent the next pandemic? Forecasting viral emergence requires scientists to connect the basic building blocks of host-virus interactions with global processes like climate change and urbanization. Dr…
January 28, 2020
Global Health Diplomacy and Partnerships for Health Event
Societies today exist in a world of unprecedented mobility and interconnectivity. Yet, increasingly globalized travel and trade also confer significant public health risks at both the domestic and international levels through the potential…
May 8, 2019
10 Years and Counting Event
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working collaboratively with other U.S. government agencies, ministries of health, the World Health Organization, and other partners to strengthen core public health capacities to prevent…
New Master’s in Global Infectious Disease Bridges Science and Policy Feature
Set to launch in fall 2019, this 18-month program offers a unique opportunity for recent graduates as well as early and mid-career professionals to study infectious disease science and policy under the guidance of experienced scholars and…
April 23, 2020
COVID-19: A Global Pandemic Demands a Global Response Publication
Top global health experts lay out a global response to the COVID-19 pandemic in a white paper released on April 23, 2020. Several members of the Global Health Initiative faculty committee are principal or contributing authors.
Center for Global Health Science and Security Georgetown Unit
Launched in 2016, the Center for Global Health Science and Security at the Georgetown University Medical Center conducts original, multidisciplinary research to help decision-makers worldwide build sustainable capacities to prevent, detect, and…
Department of Microbiology and Immunology Georgetown Unit
The Department of Microbiology and Immunology is an academic department in the Medical Center offering master, Ph.D., and certificate programs concerned with the study of the immunological and biological properties of bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
Georgetown University Medical Center Georgetown Unit
Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) is an internationally recognized academic medical center focused on research, teaching, and patient care.
Saving Lives, Transforming Health Systems: PEPFAR’s Past, Present and Future Video
Since its inception in 2003, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has moved the HIV pandemic from tragedy toward triumph. PEPFAR has saved more than 20 million lives, prevented millions of HIV infections, and helped build…
Inoculating Cities: Case Studies of Urban Pandemic Preparedness Video
Cities and urban areas are uniquely vulnerable to large-scale infectious outbreaks due to their dense and highly mobile populations, status as global transit hubs, persistent socioeconomic inequalities, and other unique contextual factors. However…
Predict and Prevent: The Viral Emergence Research Initiative Video
Will we ever actually be able to predict and prevent the next pandemic? Forecasting viral emergence requires scientists to connect the basic building blocks of host-virus interactions with global processes like climate change and urbanization. Dr…
COVID-19 in Latin America: Putting Policy in Context Video
This event launched a series of research briefs at the intersection of COVID-19 policy and impact in Latin America. Undergraduate and graduate student researchers working at the Center for Global Health Science and Security as well as the Center for…
The Role of the Bioeconomy in Ending this Pandemic and Preventing the Next One Video
What happens when a new era of epidemic risk collides with the beginnings of a revolution in biology? With response to COVID-19, we are finding out. In this presentation Ryan Morhard of Ginkgo Bioworks will consider the ways that DNA synthesis…
The Coronavirus Outbreak: A Challenge for Science and Policy Video
The rapid spread of the coronavirus since the start of 2020 has seized the attention of the global community. Scientists are grappling to understand the virus and its transmission mechanisms, and health policy officials in China and around the world…
Global Health Diplomacy and Partnerships for Health Video
Societies today exist in a world of unprecedented mobility and interconnectivity. Yet, increasingly globalized travel and trade also confer significant public health risks at both the domestic and international levels through the potential…
Global Health Initiative 2019 Faculty Forum Part Two Video
The 2019 GHI Faculty Forum was an opportunity for members of the Georgetown community to come together from across campuses and schools to learn more about one another's work in global health and explore collaboration opportunities.
Rebecca Katz Discusses the Center for Global Health Science and Security Video
The 2019 GHI Faculty Forum was an opportunity for members of the Georgetown community to come together from across campuses and schools to learn more about one another's work in global health and explore collaboration opportunities.
10 Years and Counting Video
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working collaboratively with other U.S. government agencies, ministries of health, the World Health Organization, and other partners to strengthen core public health capacities to prevent…
Global Health Diplomacy and Security: The Role of Vaccines in Global Health Security Video
Long before global health security became a term of art, vaccines were protecting communities from infectious diseases and outbreaks, and their disruptive effects on health and society. Whenever there is an infectious disease outbreak the first…
