Rasmussen - Leadership

Sonja A. Rasmussen, MD, MS

Director, Division of Public Health Information Dissemination 

Editor-in-Chief, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services

Office of Public Health Scientific Services

Sonja Rasmussen is the Director of the Division of Public Health Information Dissemination, and Editor-in-Chief of CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

Dr. Rasmussen joined the CDC in 1998 and since then, has provided significant scientific expertise and leadership. She held several positions in the National Center on Birth Defects and Development Disabilities including Medical Officer, Associate Director for Science, and Senior Scientist. While there, she worked collaboratively with other experts across CDC on pandemic planning efforts for pregnant women, and these efforts guided CDC recommendations for pregnant women during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. From 2011-2014, she served as Deputy Director of the Influenza Coordination Unit, which is responsible for CDC’s pandemic influenza preparedness from strategy through implementation. Most recently, Dr. Rasmussen served as the Acting Director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR), the office responsible for CDC's public health preparedness and response activities, including CDC’s Emergency Operations Center.

Dr. Rasmussen received her BS in Biology and Mathematics with magna cum laude honors from the University of Minnesota-Duluth, her MS degree in Medical Genetics from the University of Wisconsin, and her MD degree with honors from University of Florida. She completed her pediatrics residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and her fellowship in clinical genetics at Johns Hopkins and University of Florida. She is board certified in pediatrics and clinical genetics and has authored or coauthored over 200 peer-reviewed papers.