Lyn Finelli, Chief of Surveillance and Outbreak Response, Influenza Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
Country of Residence: United States
Dr. Finelli received her BSN in 1981, and Master of Science in Pediatric Primary Care in 1983 from Columbia University.
From 1984 to 1990, she taught pediatrics and public health at Columbia University and was the director of the Pediatric Primary Care Program (pediatric nurse practitioner program). She received her doctorate in infectious disease epidemiology from Columbia University, School of Public Health in 1990.
Dr. Finelli began working with CDC in 1990, providing technical assistance in epidemiology to the New Jersey Department of Health, where she held the positions of epidemiologist and acting State Epidemiologist. Dr. Finelli moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1997 to work as an epidemiologist in the Division of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, in 2001 joined the Division of Viral Hepatitis as Chief of the Surveillance Team, and is now the Chief of Surveillance and Outbreak Response, Influenza Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
In the Influenza Division, Dr. Finelli is responsible for leading a team of 35 scientists in conduct of influenza surveillance and special research studies. The Team is responsible for national surveillance for influenza, and a wide array of research activities conducted within current surveillance platforms and in clinical agencies. The Team is currently conducting three multiple respiratory pathogen studies of community acquired pneumonia and acute respiratory infection in the community. Dr. Finelli led the epidemiology response for the CDC during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, overseeing a team of more than 200 scientists. The Team assisted in identifying the first two cases of pandemic influenza in the United States through routine surveillance and described the epidemiology and epidemiologic parameters used to develop national recommendations for vaccine prioritization, antiviral prophylaxis and treatment, and community mitigation.
Her research interests include influenza-bacterial co-infection, influenza complications including influenza-related pneumonia, and zoonotic influenza. Dr. Finelli is co-author of more than 180 scientific papers and book chapters, and more than 100 published abstracts.