Dr. Ezra J. Barzilay hails from Greece and is a pediatrician by training. Currently the Country Director of the CDC office in Kyiv, Ukraine, he is leading the efforts to stem the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and responding to the COVID-19 threat in the country.
Ezra is a commissioned officer of the US Public Health Service, currently in the rank of Captain, he has served in uniform for 16 years, his most recent role at CDC was serving as the technical lead of the National Public Health Institute Program in the Center for Global Health. In this role, he supported several countries in strengthening or establishing their national public health institutes and led the process of strategic planning and coordination of vertical disease programs and other public health functions from a systems perspective.
Ezra began his career at CDC in 2004 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer. He also served as the lead epidemiologist for the Health System Reconstruction Office, and served as the Deputy Incident Manager for the CDC’s 2016-2017 Zika Response, the 2014-2015 Ebola Response and the 2010-2011 Haiti Cholera Response. Prior to that, Ezra led the U.S. National Surveillance Team for Enteric Diseases in the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at CDC.
Ezra received his bachelor’s and medical degrees from Tufts University, in Boston, MA, where he returned in 2012 as an Institutional Scholar and Practitioner in Residence (INSPIRE) Fellow, to advise, mentor, and instruct students of the 2012 Institute for Global Leadership colloquium/symposium efforts on Global Health and Security. He completed a residency in pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine Affiliated Hospitals and then joined the Epidemic Intelligence Service corps at CDC to train in infectious disease epidemiology and is board-certified in pediatrics. Ezra is a Fellow for Life with the Albert Schweitzer Foundation, and holds academic appointments as Adjunct Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences and as Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine.
Fluent in seven languages, Ezra's field experience includes disease surveillance, international public health interventions, disaster response, outbreak investigations, and serving as a trainer and expert consultant for the World Health Organization.
Ezra was a superb INSPIRE Fellow. He was our colloquium Outward Bound quest lecturer and ran the Operation Dark Winter exercise on biological terrorism attacks on the U.S.
Ezra receiving “the Light On the Hill” Award in 2013.
He expertly mentored our students and provided internships at the CDC. I nominated him for the top Tufts University alumni honor, "The Light On the Hill" Award in 2013.
He has remained a close friend and ally. Most recently, he helped convene Trebuchet's webinar event on the human impact of COVID-19.