Deb Houry
Deb Houry – 2025 MSM Winter Commencement
Deb Houry
Keynote Speaker
Emergency Physician; Former Chief Medical Officer, CDC; Adjunct Professor, Emory; Senior Advisor to California Public Health Network Information Exchange
Dr. Debra Houry, former CDC Chief Medical Officer and emergency physician, led the nation’s response to drug overdoses and pandemic preparedness strategies while overseeing a $6 billion portfolio. A proven crisis and inspirational leader, she translates lessons from the ER and CDC into actionable insights on resilience, trust, and purpose-driven leadership.
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Dr. Debra Houry is a nationally recognized physician, researcher, and public health leader with nearly three decades of experience guiding healthcare and public health strategy across the federal government, health systems, and academia. She has consistently stepped up to address urgent challenges, ranging from hands-on trauma care in bustling county emergency rooms to tackling major issues at the forefront of the nation’s most prominent public health agency.
A board-certified emergency physician, Dr. Houry brings a clinician’s lens to national policy and organizational leadership. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), she served across four presidential administrations, including as the Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science. Over her tenure at CDC, Dr. Houry guided more than $8 billion in public health programs, fostered cross-sector coalitions spanning all 50 states, and helped steer the nation through some of its most complex public health emergencies ranging from outbreaks to firearm violence. During the transition into the second Trump administration and the early RFK Jr.-led HHS era, she served as the senior-most career leader and scientist at CDC, working to safeguard the agency’s scientific integrity and continuity of mission amid political transition.
In 2025, Dr. Houry publicly resigned from the CDC and later testified before Congress, speaking candidly about the challenges of maintaining scientific independence and protecting the public’s health in times of deep political polarization. Dr. Houry is now consulting as a senior medical advisor for the California Public Health Network Innovation Exchange, a new initiative through the Governor’s office.
Dr. Houry has appeared on CNN, NPR, and major national outlets, and has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal for her leadership in crisis response and public health. An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, she is the recipient of the American Medical Association Award for Outstanding Government Service, American College of Emergency Physicians Public Health Trailblazer Award, and the Atlanta Business Chronicle Public Healthcare Hero Award. Dr. Houry has also authored 100+ academic articles ranging from opioid overdose to medical education to clinical interventions.
Featured Videos
Deb Houry’s Speech Topics
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Leadership Lessons: Navigating Change and Crisis with Clarity
From trauma bays to national crises, Dr. Debra Houry has learned that calm is not the absence of chaos—it’s the result of preparation, focus, and moral clarity. In this powerful conversation drawn from personal stories, she reveals how the same triage principles that save lives in the ER and that she used at the CDC during critical moments can guide leaders through uncertainty and competing demands.
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The Role of Corporate America in Shaping a Healthier Nation
Business and health are inseparable. Dr. Houry makes the case for why companies must view community health as a core business strategy. From employee wellness to environmental sustainability, she offers tangible steps for corporate leaders to build a healthier, more equitable, and economically resilient America.
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Whole-Person Health: Integrating Mental, Physical, and Social Wellbeing
The future of “whole person” healthcare and how technology and workplace innovation can support mental wellbeing, reduce burnout, and foster improved quality of life.
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What Businesses Can Learn from Public Health
Reframing preparedness as strategic foresight, with practical frameworks that help corporations future-proof their organizations using public-health principles.
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The Mental Health and Addiction Crisis in the US- Moving from Stigma to Solutions
Drawing on her decades as an emergency physician and national public-health leader to address one of America’s most urgent challenges: the intertwined epidemics of substance use and mental-health distress. Having led federal efforts on the opioid epidemic, suicide prevention, and community-based trauma response, Dr. Houry shares what truly works—reducing stigma, integrating treatment into everyday healthcare, and supporting recovery through data-driven, compassionate policies. This is more than a conversation about addiction—it’s an invitation to reimagine recovery as a collective, national commitment.
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From Data to Decisions: How Technology Is Redefining Public Health Intelligence
Explores how AI, predictive analytics, and real-time data systems are transforming disease surveillance, population health, and emergency response, and what the private sector can learn about scaling secure, interoperable health data systems that drive proactive decision-making.
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