Amira Roess
Dr. Roess is a professor of Global Health and Epidemiology at George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services, Department of Global and Community Health. She is an epidemiologist with expertise in infectious diseases epidemiology, multi-disciplinary and multi-species field research and evaluating interventions to reduce the transmission and impact of infectious diseases. Dr. Roess currently oversees several longitudinal studies to understand emergence and transmission of zoonotic infectious diseases globally, including the emergence and transmission of Campylobacter (with support from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), MERS-CoV (with support from the US National Science Foundation), development of COVID-19 in the first year of life, and the development of the microbiome during the first year of life. She is also leading a number of other COVID-19 projects. She studies breastfeeding patterns and their association with future health disparities and has also studied the impact of hurricanes on morbidity and mortality in the United States, links between food animal production and emerging infectious and zoonotic disease emergence globally, and mHealth (especially apps) technology integration and evaluations to reduce the impact of infectious diseases outbreaks, promote health care and health reduce disparities.
Dr. Roess holds a PhD in global disease epidemiology and control from Johns Hopkins University. Her current studies are in the US, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Ethiopia. Prior to joining academia, Dr. Roess served as the Science Director for the Pew Commission on Industrial Food Animal Production at Johns Hopkins, and was an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer at the CDC. She has served as consultant for the United States Agency for International Development, the World Bank, and Westat Inc. She has a master degree from the UMDNJ/ Rutgers University School of Public Health.