Bio Daskalakis Demetre MD MPH 4.2021

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis is the Director of the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. He began his career as an attending
physician at Bellevue Hospital in NYC where he spearheaded several public health
programs focused on community HIV testing and prevention. He has since served in a
number of capacities in both healthcare and public health in NYC. Most recently,
he served as the Deputy Commissioner for the Division of Disease Control at the NYC
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Dr. Daskalakis directed the public health
laboratory and all infectious disease control programs for NYC, including HIV,
tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections, vaccine-preventable diseases, and general
communicable diseases. In addition to his leadership in daily infectious disease control
efforts, he has served as the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene incident
commander during the measles outbreak of 2018-2019, as well as the current COVID-19
public health emergency since January 2020.
Dr. Daskalakis grew up in Arlington, Virginia. He received his medical education from the
NYU School of Medicine and completed his residency training at Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center in Boston. He also completed clinical infectious disease fellowships at
the Brigham and Women’s Massachusetts General Hospital combined program and
received a Master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public
Health. He has authored or co-authored more than 50 scholarly articles and has
received numerous awards for his scientific and public health contributions, including
the Treatment Action Group Research in Action Award, the Latino Commission on AIDS
Esperanza Award, the GMHC Hector Xtravagnza Xcellence Award, and the World AIDS
Day awards from both New York City and New York State. He has also been recognized
as a prominent voice for the LGBTQIA+ community by the New York Times, City and
State, Out magazine, Metrosource, and Paper magazine.
Dr. Daskalakis is recognized nationally and internationally as an expert in HIV prevention
and has focused much of his career on the treatment and prevention of HIV and other
STIs as an activist physician with a focus on LGBTQIA+ communities. He has also
dedicated much of his time to improving the health of underserved communities and is
passionate about addressing health equity.
Dr. Daskalakis joined the CDC as the Director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention in
December 2020 and has most recently been assigned the role of Senior Lead, Equity in
COVID-19 Data and Engagement in the CDC response to the pandemic.