Dan Rutz, MPH – Enterprise Communications Officer - Coordinating
Center for Infectious Diseases/Communications Special Assistant - NCID
Dan Rutz serves as Enterprise Communications Officer for the Coordinating
Center for Infectious Diseases and Special Assistant for Communications
to the Director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID),
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Ga. His
primary focus is emerging infectious diseases and bio-terrorism issues.
In addition to serving as a communications lead for outbreak response,
Rutz is involved in developing communications strategy as an integral
component of crisis preparedness. To that end, he is involved with the
World Health Organization (WHO) initiative to establish an international
standard for outbreak risk communication, and is assisting in the development
of the WHO pandemic influenza response plan, as well as counterpart
plans for CDC and HHS. To the extent that NCID is most commonly the
lead CDC component to respond to acute public health events, Rutz is
experienced in coordinating the Agency’s communications response
through CDC’s Emergency Communications System (ECS), which has
played key roles in the management of the influenza vaccine shortage,
West Nile virus, SARS, and monkeypox.
Additionally, Rutz remains active as a volunteer board member of and/or
advisor to several national and international organizations dealing
with cancer and other public health threats.
For nearly thirty years Dan Rutz has been professionally committed to
health and medical communications. Prior to joining CDC, he served as
Managing Editor and on-air Sr. Medical Correspondent for the CNN domestic
and international television and radio networks for 18 years. In 2001
he completed the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Emory University,
and has worked as an independent consultant and health communications
specialist.
Rutz has lectured in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, on the media’s
role in cancer control and is an original signer of the International
Paris Charter against Cancer. In 2002 Rutz was appointed to the Angiogenesis
Foundation Board of Directors (Cambridge, Mass.). The organization supports
research in novel approaches to major chronic diseases ranging from
heart attack to cancer. Additionally, he is a (past) board member of
the International Breast Cancer Research Foundation, (Madison, Wis.),
and the International Campaign for the Establishment and Development
of Oncology Centers. Rutz is also an architect of Patient School, (Atlanta,
Ga.), an evolving patient education vehicle under development with experts
in cancer, other chronic disease, and mass media.
