Lead, Outbreak Response Team, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
CDR Kiran Perkins is an obstetrician-gynecologist and a medical officer of the U.S. Public Health Service serving as lead of the Outbreak Response Team in CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion since 2017. In this role, she coordinates local and national healthcare-associated infection outbreak response. During her time at CDC, she has led over 400 responses to outbreaks and infection control threats across all U.S. states and 9 countries. She has also led several national investigations, including the investigation of infections associated with heater-cooler devices used during cardiac surgery, leading to the notification of half-million U.S. patients at risk and the investigation of the largest U.S. outbreak of bacterial infections due to contaminated stem cell products. While at CDC she has worked on agency-wide emergency response efforts including the Ebola and Zika outbreaks and the COVID-19 pandemic.
CDR Perkins completed an undergraduate degree in Human Development at Cornell University, medical degree at the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and MPH in Women’s and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her residency training was completed at Magee Womens Hospital, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She completed CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Applied Epidemiology fellowship in the Division of Reproductive Health, where she had the opportunity to work with the National Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Surveillance System to conduct epidemiologic analyses on risks and outcomes associated with ART. CDR Perkins continues to engage in obstetric and gynecologic clinical activities at Grady Memorial Hospital as adjunct faculty at Emory School of Medicine.
