Ms. Courtney is Associate at the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC. Ms. Courtney’s research focuses on altered standards of care, hospital preparedness, medical countermeasures dispensing, and public-private partnerships. She is also a contributor to the Biosecurity Briefing, a weekly internet-based news, science, and policy update. Prior to joining the Center, Ms. Courtney served as director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response for the Baltimore City Health Department. Her responsibilities included drafting and implementing the Department’s emergency plans; coordinating the City’s hospital preparedness consortium; coordinating the development of a public-private partnership for mass dispensing and a first responder prophylaxis plan; overseeing biosurveillance activities; and representing the Department on City emergency planning committees. Prior to her tenure with Baltimore City, Ms. Courtney worked on surge capacity and pandemic influenza planning as a law fellow with the Center for Health and Homeland Security. She has also worked as a law fellow for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and for the Public Health Division of the HHS Office of the General Counsel as well as a law clerk in the health fraud division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In addition, Ms. Courtney has worked on international relations and disaster response at the American Red Cross; on issues related to healthcare coverage at the Maryland Health Care Commission; and on tobacco control, obesity, and health disparities issues. Ms. Courtney received her JD and certificate in health law from the University of Maryland School of Law and is admitted to practice in Maryland. She received her MPH from Yale University, and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she received her BA in anthropology in 1996. |