Dr. Schoch-Spana, a medical anthropologist, is a Senior Associate with the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and an Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases. The Biosecurity Center works to affect policy and practice in ways that lessen the illness, death, and civil disruption that would follow large-scale epidemics, whether they occur naturally or result from the use of a biological weapon. Dr. Schoch-Spana has led research, education and advocacy efforts to encourage greater consideration by authorities of the general public’s capacity to confront bioattacks and epidemics constructively. In 2009, she organized the national conference Resilient American Communities: Progress in Policy and Practice, and chaired the Resilience Research Work Group. In 2006, she oversaw the Working Group on Citizen Engagement in Health Emergency Planning, and was the principal organizer for the U.S.-Canada summit on Disease, Disaster & Democracy – The Public’s Stake in Health Emergency Planning. In 2003, she organized the national meeting, Leadership during Bioterrorism: The Public as an Asset, Not a Problem, and chaired the Working Group on “Governance Dilemmas” in Bioterrorism Response that issued consensus recommendations to mayors, governors, and top health officials nationwide in 2004. For over 10 years, Dr. Schoch-Spana has briefed numerous federal, state and local officials, as well as medical, public health, and public safety professionals on critical issues in biosecurity. National advisory roles include serving on the Steering Committee of the Disaster Roundtable of the National Research Council (NRC), the Institute of Medicine Standing Committee on Medical Readiness, and the NRC Committee to Review the Department of Homeland Security’s Approach to Risk Analysis. She serves on the faculty for the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a university-based center of excellence supported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Archival and ethnographic case studies inform Dr. Schoch-Spana’s perspective on community reactions to public health and terrorist crises including Anthrax Attacks 2001, World Trade Center attack 2001, and Pandemic Influenza 1918. Select publications include “Community Engagement: Leadership Tool for Catastrophic Health Events,” Biosecurity & Bioterrorism, 2007; “Leading during Bioattacks and Epidemics with the Public’s Trust and Help,” Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, 2004; “Educating, Informing and Mobilizing the Public,” in Terrorism and Public Health, B. Levy and V. Sidel, eds., Oxford University Press, 2003; and “Bioterrorism and the Public: How to Vaccinate a City against Panic?” Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2002. In 2003, Dr. Schoch-Spana helped establish the Biosecurity Center of UPMC; prior to that she worked at the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies starting in 1998. She received her PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Johns Hopkins University (1998) and BA from Bryn Mawr College (1986). |
