Kristin DeBord | Acting Deputy Director, Office of Strategy, Policy, Planning & Requirements
Department of Health and Human Services

Dr. DeBord is the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Strategy, Policy, Planning, and Requirements (SPPR) within the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR). She provides leadership and oversight to the office, ensuring ASPR’s operational preparedness and response capabilities align with ASPR priorities and broader policy and planning considerations for ASPR and HHS. Prior to this role, Dr. DeBord served as the Director for the Division of Strategy in ASPR/SPPR. She was responsible for providing an anticipatory, long-term perspective on national health security to help identify and advance preparedness and response initiatives for the ASPR and HHS Secretary. Dr. DeBord has also served as a Senior Science Advisor to two Deputy Assistant Secretaries, including the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy ASPR, where she led a range of preparedness and response activities related to pandemic influenza and other highly infectious disease outbreaks, and the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the HHS Office of Security and Strategic Information, covering issues related to emerging biotechnologies, biosafety/biosecurity, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats. Dr. DeBord also served as a Program Officer at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), providing microbiology and animal models expertise for programs across NIAID, and managed contracts for the development of vaccines and therapeutics against various respiratory pathogens. Finally, she was the Technical Director of the Small Animal Research Core at the University of Chicago. Here she managed the university biocontainment facilities and provided scientific and safety training for personnel. She also taught microbiology and genetics courses at the undergraduate, graduate, and medical school levels. Dr. DeBord earned her doctorate degree in Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics from the University of California, Los Angeles.