Anne Rimoin, PhD, MPH, is a professor of epidemiology and Gordon-Levin endowed chair in infectious diseases and public health at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She is the director of the Center for Global and Immigrant Health and the director / founder of the UCLA-DRC Health Research and Training program and is a globally recognized expert on emerging infections, global health, disease surveillance systems, and vaccination.

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Anne has been working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since 2002, where she founded the UCLA-DRC Health Research and Training program to train US and Congolese epidemiologists to conduct high-impact infectious disease research in low-resource, logistically complex settings. 

 

Anne has dedicated her career to understanding the emergence of infectious diseases and developing surveillance systems to detect early outbreaks and prevent pandemics – often compared with finding a needle in a haystack. Her pioneering research includes identifying novel pathogens in humans and conducting epidemiologic studies of emerging pathogens and vaccine-preventable diseases. Her work has significantly advanced the fundamental understanding of human mpox (formerly monkeypox) epidemiology, long-term immunity to ebola virus in survivors, and durability of the immune response to ebola-virus vaccine in health workers. Her current research portfolio includes studies of COVID-19, Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever, ebola, Marburg, mpox, Nipah virus, and vaccine-preventable diseases of childhood. 

 

Recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on the epidemiology of mpox, Anne has advised the World Health Organization (WHO) as a member of the International Health Regulation Emergency Committee on the Multi-Country Outbreak of Mpox and the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts’ Mpox / Smallpox Vaccine Working Group. She also served on the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Consensus Committee on the Current State of Research, Development, and Stockpiling of Smallpox Medical Countermeasures.

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Anne’s scientific expertise has been prominently featured in leading print media, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Atlantic, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, WIRED,  Bloomberg News, Scientific American, Forbes, National Geographic, Nature, and Science. Her knowledge of emerging infectious diseases and science communication has made her a sought-after on-camera expert for local, national, and international news media outlets. She is a trusted source of information for Los Angeles news affiliates (KABC, KCBS / KCAL, KNBC, KTLA, KTTV), national networks (ABC, NBC, CBS), cable news (BBC World News, Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, Spectrum News), and current-affairs programs such as The 11th Hour with Brian Williams and Real Time with Bill Maher.

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Anne’s work was the focus of a PBS KCET documentary titled “The Virus Hunter,” which aired as part of the SoCal Connected series. Over the past two decades, several documentary teams have highlighted her research in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), showcasing her contributions to understanding and combating emerging infectious diseases.

In 2021, Anne provided expert guidance on COVID-19 safety and delivered a public service announcement about the importance of COVID-19 vaccination at the 93rd Academy Awards. This segment was featured on ABC’s pre-Oscars “Into the Spotlight” show. Additionally, she appeared in several public service announcements focused on COVID-19 for the Los Angeles community throughout the pandemic.

 

Anne earned her BA from Middlebury College, her MPH from UCLA, and her PhD from Johns Hopkins University. She began her career in global public health as a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin, West Africa, working on the guinea worm eradication program. She has been recognized for her contributions to epidemiology and global health with several prestigious awards, including the Middlebury College Alumni Achievement Award (2017), induction as a fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2019), the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association Global Achievement Award (2022), and a place on the STAT Status List (2023).