David Gittelman, MPH, has over three decades of broad global public health program experience, largely in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a public health advisor with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1986 to 2018, Mr. Gittelman contributed program planning, policy development, management and evaluation skills US-based program management expertise and strong field operations to further a wide range of key interventions, with a
focus on malaria prevention and control and childhood immunizations. He served as the first CDC deputy team lead for the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) from soon after its inception in 2006 through 2018. Starting with a small team supporting three African countries, he helped expand CDC-PMI operations and guide the technical contributions of 24 field- and 30 US-based epidemiologists and others who strengthened national malaria
control programs in 26 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Greater Mekong Sub-region. Working closely in an interagency capacity with USAID, he fostered a strong network of program directors and researchers in multi-lateral agencies and in countries. In parallel, Mr. Gittelman helped establish the Alliance for Malaria Prevention (AMP) partnership to promote the large-scale ownership and use of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets through campaigns and routine channels, and remains a member of its core leadership group.

Prior to his work with PMI, Mr. Gittelman served for nearly eight years as a regional team leader for measles control programs with CDC’s Global Immunization Division. He developed expertise in program monitoring and evaluation for measles and polio vaccination campaigns in Africa, South Asia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Other CDC
assignments included establishing a program on reproductive health services in refugee settings, and working over four years in Lesotho for the CDC-USAID Combatting Childhood Communicable Diseases Project (CCCD) in immunizations, diarrheal diseases control, and the control of acute respiratory infections in children.

Mr. Gittelman received his MPH in international health at UCLA, and his undergraduate degree in African regional studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He studied for a year at the University of Dakar, Senegal, worked on refugee assistance with the International Organization for Migration in Macau and Hong Kong, and served as a regional immunization supervisor in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
Mr. Gittelman received a 2019 Alliance for Malaria Prevention Annual Award for contributions to improving LLIN ownership and use, and a 2010 Rotary International Paul Harris Award for contributions to malaria prevention efforts in Africa. In 2020 the School of Public Health at the University at Albany appointed him as clinical associate professor to support programs in its Center for Global Health. Currently he works as a part-time independent consultant for global health programs, based in Albany, New York.