Current CSTE President Catherine (Katie) M. Brown, DVM, MSc, MPH had practiced as a veterinarian for ten years when she decided to go back to school and study public health.
While taking an “Intro to Epidemiology” course, Katie learned about John Snow, a 19th century physician who successfully traced a rampant Cholera outbreak in London and is considered the “father of modern epidemiology.” Inspired by the story,
Katie had an “a-ha” moment and realized what she wanted to do with the rest of her career.
“I remember driving home that night and calling my parents and saying, ‘This is what I want to do. Epidemiology is where it’s at.’"
She now serves as the State Epidemiologist and State Public Health Veterinarian in Massachusetts and was elected CSTE President last summer for a one-year term.
"Throughout my career at the state health department, our administration has continued to promote engagement with CSTE. I believe they agree that it contributes to our national public health voice and allows for information sharing that serves the
greater good of the department and country. I’ve found that to be absolutely true and I'm grateful for it."
Unsurprisingly, as both a vet and an epi, Katie’s presidential priorities reflect both of those professional passions. Particularly in finding common ground between both disciplines, otherwise known as a “OneHealth” approach to public health.
CDC defines OneHealth as “a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach — working at the local, regional, national, and global levels — with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people,
animals, plants, and their shared environment.”
Brown’s first presidential priority is to strengthen the working relationship between CSTE and the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians (NASPHV). Both organizations have been important to her professionally, but it wasn’t until
the recent H5N1 outbreak that she realized how much stronger each could be if they continue to combine efforts.
“The fact that I became President at the same time of this H5N1 outbreak made me realize I was being gifted this opportunity to really help explain to people in a very tangible way why it's so important that we look at both animal health and human
health.”
That sentiment also led to Brown’s second priority as CSTE President: creating a CSTE “OneHealth” Applied Epidemiology Fellowship (AEF).
The origins of this priority came from when she was finishing her master’s degree. Brown learned about AEF, a CSTE program giving recent or soon to be graduates real world experience working in health departments. She thought it would be a great opportunity
and was enticed by a particular chance to also work with a state veterinarian in addition to epidemiologists.
“What really drew me in was the fact that there was a posting at the New York Department of Health that was with the State Public Health Veterinarian,” Brown said. “So that's almost a One Health Fellowship and what made me apply.”
[Fun Fact! Brown is the first former AEF fellow to become CSTE President]
Brown’s experience as an “almost” OneHealth AEF fellow inspired her to push to formalize an opportunity for individuals like her offering a similar experience.
“I want to be able to build on my experience and try to create a One Health Fellowship that expands a little bit and recognizes that fellows need to work with not only the health department, but also have ties to veterinarians and agriculture departments.”
As a longtime member of CSTE, Brown has seen the organization grow exponentially during the last few years. This growth has inspired another presidential priority of hers: reshaping the CSTE Position Statement process.
In case you’re unaware, position statements allow CSTE members to standardize surveillance case definitions, maintain the Nationally Notifiable Condition List, and address policy issues that could affect state or local law, rules or regulations. Position
statements are submitted each spring and then discussed and voted on by the CSTE membership at the Annual Conference in June.
Brown says her goal is to meld the existing member-driven approach with an organization-wide strategic framework.
“It used to be easier for individual members to drive issues,” she said. “But now we need to combine that with an overall strategic approach.”
That means recognizing that CSTE members generally have the same issues of concern and address it from their own viewpoint and experiences. Those valuable insights could then be distilled into policy that reflects CSTE as policy body.
“It's recognizing that there are different lenses that all of us apply to the same set of problems, and we need to combine those together in order to come up with the best path forward,” Brown said.
To summarize Brown’s presidential priorities in a word would be growth. The growth of applied epidemiology to further include animal and environmental concerns, an especially timely issue given the current H5N1 Outbreak. Also, the growth of CSTE Fellowships
to reflect this change. And finally, the growth of CSTE itself and the importance of having a unified, organizational-wide voice in the position statement process.
As 2025 rolls along, Brown will continue to lead CSTE and work on these crucial priorities.
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