Richard E. Besser

Dr. Richard E.
Besser, MD, is a President & Chief Executive Officer at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
He is on the Board of Directors at Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and Living Cities, Inc. He leads the largest private foundation in the country devoted solely to improving the nation’s health.
In his role, he is a leading voice on the importance of health equity, advocating for racial justice, full inclusion of people with disabilities, and a COVID-19 response and recovery that prioritizes those most impacted.
In his role at ABC News, he provided medical analysis and reports for all ABC News programs and platforms.
While at ABC News, he traveled all over the United States and around the globe to cover major medical news stories.
Before joining ABC News in 2009, he worked as director of the Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response at the CDC.
In that role he was responsible for all the CDC's public health emergency preparedness and emergency response activities.
He also served as acting director of the CDC from January to June 2009, during which time he led the CDC's response to the H1N1 influenza pandemic.
His tenure at the CDC began in 1991 working on the epidemiology of food-borne illness.
He then served for five years on the faculty of the University of California, San Diego as the pediatric residency director, while also conducting research and working for the county health department on the control of pediatric tuberculosis.
He returned to the CDC in 1998 as an infectious disease epidemiologist working on pneumonia, antibiotic resistance, and the control of antibiotic overuse.
He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Williams College and medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
He completed a residency and chief residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore.