Dori Reissman, M.D., M.P.H.: Coordinating Emergency Operations
Medical Officer/Epidemiologist
CDC, National Center for Infectious Diseases
Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program
Epidemiology, Surveillance and Response Branch
Dr. Dori Reissman, 41, a Public Health Service Commissioned Corps medical officer, used to feel self-conscious about wearing her uniform to pick up her toddler from daycare.
That was before September 11, 2001. After September 11, her perspective changed. “I, like many, wore my uniform every day,” she says. “It gave me a sense of patriotism and pride that I was making a difference. It really fueled me when I had nothing left.”
In the critical hours following the terrorist attacks, Reissman helped set up an emergency operations center from scratch for CDC’s Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program, even after being evacuated from CDC headquarters. As a senior member of the program’s epidemiology and surveillance team, she supervised staff in Atlanta, oversaw the development of educational materials and health alerts, and deployed about 60 Epidemic Intelligence Service officers to New York City and Washington, D.C. “It was frenetic,” she remembers. “There weren’t really clear boundaries for where our jobs ended. If there was a problem, you’d just pick it up and deal with it.”
When CDC launched its agency-wide emergency operations center during the anthrax crisis, Reissman served as co-leader for the operational epidemiology and surveillance team. Her team’s work was vital to support rapid decision-making by local, state, agency, department and other federal partners including the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Environmental Protection Agency and what is now Homeland Security.
“There was a lot of tension about the numbers we would gather,” she says. “For instance, how many people were sick with anthrax versus the number of cases under investigation. Those numbers were reported to public health officials, the media and many others. We had to get it right.”
On the home front, life was a juggling act. Reissman’s parents and mother-in-law bravely boarded planes to Atlanta within a week of the terrorist attacks to take care of their grandchild. “My husband worked in the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile program at the time, and he was deployed to New York City. I was working in the emergency operations center. We were both involved in emergency response - and we’re both very committed parents,” Reissman recalls. “When our child started to act up a little bit, that was a message to stop and take a breath.”
Adds Reissman, “I’ve never worked on something that had such national importance. As hard and tough as it was, we were saving lives. It felt very good to be part of that.”