Mehran S. Massoudi, PhD, MPH was appointed Regional Health Administrator for Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Region VI, in October 2016. Dr. Massoudi is a Commissioned Corps officer in the US Public Health Service, having served since 1994 and holds the rank of a Captain. He is the senior federal health official representing the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health and the Office of the Surgeon General in Region VI, which covers Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. Region VI is the third most populated among the 10 HHS regions, having a large ethnic and racially diverse population and the second largest Hispanic population in the country, covering two-thirds of the US-Mexico Border.
Prior to joining OASH, Dr. Massoudi served as the Branch Chief for the Applied Research and Translation Branch (ARTB) and the Director of the Prevention Research Centers (PRC) Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta GA. In addition to the PRC Program, the Branch also included the Healthy Aging and the Workplace Health Programs. CAPT Massoudi has served as the Associate Director for Science in the Scientific Education and Professional Development Program Office, Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services. Over the course of his professional career, he has served as a CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in 1994, the science advisor to the Smallpox Team at CDC’s National Immunization Program, the SARS Surveillance Team Lead in CDC’s National Center for Infectious Diseases, and the Associate Director for Science in the Office of Workforce and Career Development. From 2005 to 2007, he oversaw the development of the Afghan Public Health Institute (APHI) within the Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health. He trained and mentored the APHI staff and assisted with the ministry’s response to the avian influenza outbreaks of 2005-2006. Beyond his regularly assigned duties at CDC, CAPT Massoudi has also completed five international deployments for CDC and the World Health Organization as part of the Polio Eradication Initiative. He has also traveled to Haiti as part of the Department’s health and medical response, and most recently, deployed as Lead for the Epi Team in Grand Cape Mount, Liberia for the Ebola Response. CAPT Massoudi’s PhD is in epidemiology, and he has an MPH degree from the University of Pittsburgh.
