Elizabeth Cameron

Elizabeth Cameron is an American national security expert specializing in biosecurity, biodefense, and bioterrorism.[1] She is a professor at the Pandemic Center of the Brown University School of Public Health.[2] Previously, she served as Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense on the White House National Security Council staff.[3]

Elizabeth Cameron
Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense, National Security Council
In office
January 2021 – February 2022
PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byR. Timothy Ziemer (2018)
Succeeded byRaj Panjabi
In office
September 2016 – March 2017
PresidentBarack Obama
Donald Trump
Preceded byPosition Established
Succeeded byR. Timothy Ziemer
Personal details
NationalityAmerican
Education
OccupationNational security official
AwardsOffice of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service

Career

Cameron holds a BA in Biology from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Biology from the Human Genetics and Molecular Biology Program at the Johns Hopkins University.[1]

With the transition to the Biden administration in January 2021, Cameron was appointed as Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense to the newly reinstated directorate of the White House National Security Council staff.[3] She returned to this office, which she had helped to establish during the Obama administration.[4][5] The directorate had been disbanded by the Trump administration in May 2018, a decision that Cameron criticized in the Washington Post as having "contributed to the federal government’s sluggish domestic response" to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6] Her previous work in this role included contributing to the development of the Global Health Security Agenda, an international effort by 69 countries to address the threat of infectious diseases.[1] Cameron was also responsible for writing the 2016 "pandemic playbook" for the Obama White House,[7][8] including a list of priorities for pandemic preparedness and response, which was said to have been "ignored by the [Trump] administration".[9][10]

In 2017, Cameron assumed the role of Vice President for Global Biological Policy and Programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a foreign policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. In this capacity, she co-led the development of the Global Health Security Index, a health security preparedness ranking of 195 states.[11]

Between 2010 and 2013, Cameron worked in the Department of Defense, where she first served as Office Director for Cooperative Threat Reduction and later as Senior Adviser for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical & Biological Defense Programs.[1][12] In recognition of her achievements, she was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service.[1][12]

Cameron is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[13]

Media coverage

The appointment and work of Cameron have been featured in various media outlets, including the New York Times,[3] the Washington Post,[7] CNBC,[8] Politico,[4] Wired,[14] and Devex.[15]

Moreover, Cameron herself has authored opinion pieces for the Washington Post,[6] The Daily Beast,[16] and The Hill.[17][18] She has also been interviewed about her work on the 80,000 Hours podcast.[19]

Selected publications

References
  1. "Beth Cameron, PhD | Leadership & Staff". Nuclear Threat Initiative. Archived from the original on 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  2. "National Security Council and White House Pandemic Preparedness Leader to Join Brown School of Public Health | School of Public Health | Brown University". www.brown.edu. Retrieved 2022-08-09.
  3. Crowley, Michael (2021-01-08). "Announcing National Security Council staff appointees, Biden restores the office for global health threats". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  4. Paun, Carmen (14 January 2021). "The global health decisions awaiting Biden". Politico. Archived from the original on 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  5. "The Week of January 11, 2021". American Institute of Physics. 2021-01-11. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  6. Cameron, Beth. "Perspective | I ran the White House pandemic office. Trump closed it". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  7. DeYoung, Karen. "Biden's NSC to focus on global health, climate, cyber and human rights, as well as China and Russia". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  8. Scipioni, Jade (2020-06-26). "She helped write the White House 'pandemic playbook.' Here's what keeps her up at night and her advice for Trump". CNBC. Archived from the original on 2021-01-23. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  9. Jankowicz, Mia. "A new memoir from Barack Obama describes how he developed a pandemic playbook for the US, which Trump went on to ignore". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2021-01-23. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  10. Diamond, Dan; Toosi, Nahal (25 March 2020). "Trump team failed to follow NSC's pandemic playbook". Politico. Archived from the original on 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  11. "About the GHS Index". Global Health Security Index. Archived from the original on 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  12. Biographical Sketches of Workshop Speakers and Moderators. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Board on Global Health; Forum on Microbial Threats. 2018-10-15. Archived from the original on 2021-01-22.
  13. "Membership Roster: Council on Foreign Relations". Council on Foreign Relations. Archived from the original on 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  14. Kushner, David (2019-03-25). "Synthetic Biology Could Bring a Pox on Us All". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  15. Politzer, Malia (2017-10-23). "Working toward global health security: Strategies and challenges". Devex. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  16. Konyndyk, Jeremy; Cameron, Elizabeth; George, Dylan (2020-04-05). "Coronavirus Shows We Need an Apollo Project for Public Health". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  17. Cameron, Elizabeth; Glassman, Amanda; Carolyn, Reynolds (2020-02-07). "Stop coronavirus and the next epidemic by establishing a health security fund now". The Hill. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  18. Cameron, Elizabeth; Holgate, Laura (2017-09-02). "Trump must prevent the next biological attack before it strikes". The Hill. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  19. Wiblin, Robert (2017-10-25). "Dr Cameron fought Ebola for the White House. Now she works to stop something even worse". 80,000 Hours. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
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