Kate O'Brien

Katherine "Kate" L. O'Brien (born 1963) is a Canadian American pediatric infectious disease physician, epidemiologist, and vaccinologist who specializes in the areas of pneumococcal epidemiology, pneumococcal vaccine trials and impact studies, and surveillance for pneumococcal disease. She is also known as an expert in infectious diseases (including pneumonia and diarrheal diseases) in American Indian populations. O’Brien is currently the Director of the World Health Organization's Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals. Early life and education O'Brien was born in Edmonton, Alberta. She grew up in Ottawa, in the province of Ontario, and graduated from Lisgar Collegiate Institute in 1980. In 1984, O'Brien earned a BSc in chemistry from the University of Toronto. In 1988, O'Brien received an MD from McGill University at the age of 25 years old. O'Brien came to the United States to do her residency in pediatric at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1988 to 1991. In 1994, O'Brien received an MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health focused on International Public Health/International Health while also doing a two-year training program in pediatric infectious diseases. Career In 1991, O'Brien worked for a year in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on a children's health project on HIV transmission. She said the experience was formative, and led her to view vaccines as being a social justice issue.