Ursula Bauer, PhD, MPH, is the director of CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP), a position she assumed on January 4, 2010. In that role, she sets the strategic direction for the center’s “Winnable Battles” of tobacco use prevention, improved nutrition and physical activity, and prevention of teen and unintended pregnancy, as well as key priorities related to the leading causes of death.

NCCDPHP has an annual budget of about $1 billion and 1,300 staff dedicated to preventing chronic diseases and promoting health across the life span, in key settings, and with attention to the primary chronic disease risk factors.

Before becoming director of NCCDPHP, Dr. Bauer was director of the Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention in the New York State Department of Health. Her entire public health career has been in state service, in Louisiana, Florida, and New York.

Dr. Bauer received her PhD in epidemiology from Yale University, her MPH in family health from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in political science from Rutgers University.