Nancy Messonnier, M.D., is Director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD.) She is responsible for overseeing the center that prevents disease, disability, and death through immunization and by control of respiratory diseases, like influenza. NCIRD provides leadership, expertise, and service in laboratory and epidemiological sciences, and in immunization program delivery as well as implementing the Vaccines for Children Program—a national program that vaccinates about half of the children in the United States each year.

Since joining CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in 1995, Dr. Messonnier has spent her career working on safe and effective vaccines in the U.S. and globally.  Dr. Messonnier received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and MD from the University of Chicago School of Medicine. She completed internal medicine residency training at the University of Pennsylvania.  Recently, Dr. Messonnier has been overseeing CDC’s response to AFM and measles.