THE COLLEGE

"Five Questions With ..." is a new feature from the College of Arts and Sciences, spotlighting notable alumni through brief interviews about their careers and their time at Indiana University. The feature is part of the College's "Celebrating Alumni Contributions" campaign, which will include online interviews with alumni, in-depth articles, and more.

As a native of Indiana, what factors led you to choose Indiana University for your biology major, and how has this decision impacted your career trajectory?

Initially, biology had nothing to do with it. Most of my family went to IU, and I grew up an IU fan. I have vague memories of the 1976 championship team, but I clearly remember the 1980-81 NCAA champions. The season stands out for the team’s incredible transformation, starting 7-5 to winning the Big Ten title and culminating in a dominate tournament run.

Fast forward to late 1987 (after another hoops title) when it was time to look at colleges. I was interested in biology and had thoughts of becoming a physician at the time, but if I am being honest, I did not know what profession I wanted to be, apart from playing second base for the Cubs. Once at IU, I was initially a biology major and the first year was a real eye-opener. I had to learn how to study and become more disciplined. I switched to education at the start of my sophomore year and did better in my classes but was unsure about becoming a teacher.

In the summer of 1990, my mom introduced me to an oncologist, Dr. George W. Sledge, in the clinic in which she was a nurse, and he offered me a job in his laboratory at the VA hospital in Indianapolis. Learning cell culture, aseptic technique, and lab assays to measure the effectiveness of two chemotherapeutic agents, while being introduced to scientific publications and critical thinking in research, caught my attention like nothing else had. I left the lab that summer with the goal of becoming a scientist. I switched my major back to biology and entered the honors biology program. This program and professors such as Drs. Mimi Zolan, Norman Pace, George Malacinski, James Holland, and Craig Nelson, who generously shared their knowledge and experience, provided me with invaluable tools that gave me the best chance to succeed down any career path, assuming I was wise enough to use them.

You currently work as team lead within the viral special pathogens branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Can you tell us about your journey to this position and the important lessons or obstacles you encountered along the way?

The journey began while I was in the genetics and molecular biology PhD program at Emory University. While conducting research in Dr. Margaret “Kenny” Offermann’s laboratory, an oncologist in the Winship Cancer Center, I gained valuable experience and contributed to impactful publications, including collaborative work with the CDC. I began to realize that I needed more than straight bench work for a career.

For my post-doctoral work, I had considered laboratories outside of Atlanta, but my wife, who I met at Emory, was still a graduate student. I was fortunate to earn a post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Paul Rota within the measles branch at CDC to research a virus called Equine Morbillivirus (now known as Hendra virus). Our branch chief, Dr. William Bellini, asked me if I wanted to discover a new virus and, of course, my answer was “Yes!”

Working in conjunction with colleagues from Malaysia and the special pathogens branch (precursor to the viral special pathogens branch) at CDC, within two days of receiving a specimen, we identified a never-before-seen virus, now known as Nipah virus, that was the causative agent responsible for the outbreak. It was my first experience in a high-pressure, high-stakes public health situation and I loved it. While with the same lab, I was fortunate to be involved in characterizing the first SARS coronavirus and another slightly different version of Nipah virus that emerged in Bangladesh, both in 2003.

Getting hired as a full-time laboratorian at CDC at that time was difficult. My mentor on the Ebola project, Dr. Anthony Sanchez, was a captain in the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), which is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Our family has a proud tradition of service, with each generation serving our country. I did not want to break that streak, so I joined the USPHS. One of the advantages of holding a commission is that it can improve your chance of being hired by CDC. That was the case for me, and in late 2006, and I secured a permanent position in the meningitis laboratory at the CDC.

Like other CDC lab teams in which I had worked, the meningitis laboratory—and the entire branch—was comprised of incredibly talented and driven individuals. Over the nine years I spent with this team, I cannot understate how much I grew. The most rewarding aspect of my work was traveling to Asia, South America, and Africa to help set up surveillance systems to detect bacterial meningitis by teaching their scientists our assays and protocols. In that role, I learned leadership, cultural sensitivity, diplomacy, and mentorship. We built long-term collaborative relationships that have gone on for decades. In many instances, the scientists in the countries became so good that they became teachers and mentors to neighboring countries.

During these years, I also had duties within the USPHS to maintain, including disaster response training exercises, public health missions to provide care to underserved populations, and to meet with local public health officials to identify needs. I volunteered to deploy during two of the largest outbreak responses in CDC history: the H1N1 pandemic influenza response in New York City in 2009, and the West Africa Ebola response in early 2015 in Liberia, serving for several weeks in each location. There are lessons learned from that Ebola response that I still think about daily. During that response there were successes and heart-breaking losses, but one of my personal positives was reuniting with colleagues and leadership from the viral special pathogens branch (VSPB) that I had worked with on Ebola as a graduate student nearly 20 years before. This reunion led to me returning to the branch as their first biosafety officer in late 2015

VSPB consists of ~80 people and has seven biosafety level (BSL)-2, two BSL-3, and two BSL-4 laboratories and works on viruses like Ebola, Marburg, Nipah and hantaviruses. The branch’s  work ranges from performing and developing diagnostic assays, building domestic and international capacity for diagnostics, studying the pathogenesis and ecology of the viruses, and development of medical countermeasures, along with epidemiological studies of the diseases caused by these viruses. I would not have accepted the biosafety officer position from any other group at CDC, but VSPB provided an interesting challenge and opportunities.

I have expanded this role to include serving as a subject matter expert with the World Health Organization, and as a voting member on two U.S. government committees that provide technical advice to the Federal Select Agent Program, and working with our sister lab in Uganda to build a biosafety and biosecurity program. In 2019, a safety and facilities team was formed in VSPB and I was named as the lead. The role may have read simply “Biosafety Officer” but I was allowed to make it much more than that (thanks, boss).

Whatever job you are in, make the most of it, and keep your eyes open for new challenges and opportunities.

Through your work at the CDC, you travel frequently and likely encounter many high-stakes situations. How did your time at IU and the College prepare you for these aspects of your work?

Taking classes at IU was the first time I had to put forth a strong effort in the classroom and sometimes my best effort netted me a lower grade than I was accustomed. In my mind, there are two ways of interpreting that result: No. 1, that grade was the top result I could achieve after giving maximum effort, or No. 2, what I thought was my maximum effort really was not.

My time in the honors biology program at IU demonstrated to me that, more often than not, No. 2 was the more plausible explanation. The professors in the program challenged me to persevere, work harder, and delve more deeply and thoroughly to answer questions and to think critically with nuance. The latter was especially true of Dr. Nelson in his honors evolution class. When faced with any situation, high-stakes or not, whether it be in the field, in the office, or at home, the ability to rapidly assimilate information, think critically, act on decisions made, and evaluate the impact of those decisions is vital to success. The honors biology program at IU provided me with this foundation to build on for my career, and more importantly, for my life.

You earned your Ph.D. in genetics and molecular biology from Emory University. Many College students are considering graduate school as an option. Could you speak to your process of deciding whether or not to attend graduate school and offer any advice to students considering this choice?

If you are interested in going to graduate school for an advanced degree in lab sciences, I strongly recommend getting laboratory experience as an undergrad. That will serve three purposes: No. 1, You will learn if you really do want to work in and/or run your own laboratory; No. 2, You will start to acquire some of the basic knowledge of working in a lab and thinking scientifically and, in some circumstances, this work may lead to a publication; and No. 3, graduate programs like to see previous laboratory experience and that background may tip the balance in your favor even if your G.P.A. is less than another candidate with no lab skills.

These days, there are more tools at your disposal for rapid information gathering, but all that information can be intimidating and confusing. If you have an interest, do some digging to find out more. Do not be afraid to reach out to one of your professors or to experts in the field to ask questions to learn more. It is my experience that if you are tactful and show a genuine interest, you will get a response.

Finally, bear in mind that as you learn more about a field or connected fields or even new fields you do not yet know exist, your interests will likely shift and expand. Roll with it and learn. Few people know what they want to be when they grow up. Sometimes they get to be 54 years old and still are not sure, and that’s OK.

What broader advice would you share with students who are considering a career path like yours?

To answer broadly and concisely: Keep an open mind about potential opportunities and ask questions. Someone can’t say "yes" to you if you don’t ask. Take the chance. When I started in graduate school, I had no clue about many of the career opportunities I ended up choosing!

Now for the long answer: I have been an officer in the USPHS for nearly 18 years, have spent my entire post-Ph.D. career in public health at CDC (25 years), and a chunk of my graduate work took place at CDC. I knew of CDC and the fact that it was down the street from Emory University was an interesting attraction for going to Emory for graduate school, but it had not seriously crossed my mind that I would work there.

One time I made my own opportunity by taking a chance and asking a question is still paying dividends 29 years later. I had just read this new book called The Hot Zone, which was my introduction to Ebola virus. My Ph.D. advisor at Emory had invited an Ebola virus expert from CDC, Dr. Anthony Sanchez, to speak to students in the M.D./Ph.D. program at Emory. Kenny knew of my interest in Ebola virus and invited me to attend the talk.

Dr. Sanchez’s presentation blew me away—here was a guy working on what I thought at the time was the coolest virus in the world—and I got an idea. I stayed around afterwards to talk to him. In a nutshell, I thanked him for coming to talk to us, then I briefly told him about our endothelial cell and innate immune response research. I discussed my work with the measles virus at CDC and quoted a paper that had just been published describing infection of endothelial cells with Marburg virus, a cousin to Ebola virus. I said, “I bet Ebola virus also infects endothelial cells and interacts with the innate immune system. Are you interested in working together to find out?”

Much to my shock, he said “Yes.” It eventually led to collaborating with Dr. Sanchez and several other incredible scientists in the special pathogens branch at CDC on a project where we published two papers describing Ebola’s ability to block specific elements of signal transduction initiated by interferon.

Had I sat in my seat and not taken the chance, I never would have had that opportunity. That collaboration in the mid-to-late 1990s led to me getting the job I have had in the viral special pathogens branch for the last nine years.