EIS officer
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Lieutenant commander (LCDR) Katrina Byrd, MD is a medical officer in the United States Public Health Commissioned Corps and an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer assigned to Travelers’ Health Branch in the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Prior to joining CDC, she completed her undergraduate studies in microbiology at Xavier University of Louisiana, and her medical degree at Meharry Medical College. She pursued residency training in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Following residency training, LCDR Byrd moved to Rhode Island to pursue sub-specialty training in adult and pediatric Infectious Diseases at Brown University. She is currently board certified in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and adult Infectious Diseases. Throughout the course of her career, LCDR Byrd has been dedicated to addressing health disparities, particularly in communities of color. As a result, she participated as an infectious disease expert in over 15 informational sessions throughout the US that were targeted towards providing education on COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines to communities of color between January 2021 and May 2021. She coordinated medical volunteers for the Rhode Island’s Mass COVID-19 Vaccination Events that was geared towards increasing vaccination rate in Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities in Rhode Island in April and May on 2021. Her COVID-19 vaccine advocacy work has gained local and national media coverage including a featured article in the Providence Journal, appearances on Good Morning America: What You Need To Know. She is also passionate about infectious diseases and is dedicated to sharing her knowledge on Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter where she is a proud tweetiatrician. Presently, she is working on many projects in her current position including a project on the Traveler-based Genomics Surveillance Program which she will be presenting on at this year's conference.