Presidents' Council
Dr. Osterholm is an epidemiologist, COVID-19 expert and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and formerly served as a COVID-19 advisor to United States President Joe Biden. Osterholm previously served as a State Department science envoy for health security and as an epidemiologist for the state of Minnesota.
Dr. Osterholm is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, a professor in the Technological Leadership Institute, College of Science and Engineering, and an adjunct professor in the Medical School, all at the University of Minnesota.
He is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and the Council of Foreign Relations. In June 2005 Dr. Osterholm was appointed by Michael Leavitt, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to the newly established National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity. In July 2008, he was named to the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center’s Academy of Excellence in Health Research. In October 2008, he was appointed to the World Economic Forum Working Group on Pandemics.
Osterholm earned his doctorate in environmental health from the University of Minnesota in 1980.