Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Service (CSELS)
William R. Mac Kenzie, MD (RADM, USPHS)
William R. Mac Kenzie, MD, is the Acting Director of the Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services (CSELS). CSELS is a cross-cutting center that acts as an interface between CDC programs and state and local health departments, focusing on surveillance, data science, workforce development, laboratory systems, and information dissemination. In his regular role as the Deputy Director for Science in CSELS, Dr. Mac Kenzie oversees the management and improvement of about 40 of CDC’s scientific services.
Dr. Mac Kenzie has had a distinguished career at CDC and in serving state and local public health organizations. In 2017, RADM Mac Kenzie served for six months as CDC’s acting Associate Director of Science. In the 7 years prior to becoming Deputy Director of CSELS, he was Supervisory Medical Officer and Team Lead in the Clinical Research Branch of the Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. RADM Mac Kenzie’s prior positions at CDC have included being an EIS Officer assigned to the Wisconsin Division of Health; Supervisory Medical Officer in the Division of Field Services, Epidemiology Program Office (a forerunner of CSELS); Supervisory Medical Officer in the Division of Parasitic Diseases; and Quarantine Medical Officer assigned to the Los Angeles International Airport for the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine.
Over the course of his career he led the investigation of the largest documented outbreak of waterborne disease associated with a public water supply (cryptosporidiosis in Milwaukee, Wisconsin); supervised and trained over 35 officers in CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) – many of whom are now in leadership positions throughout the agency; engaged in emergency preparedness and response planning for breaches in health security, including pandemic influenza; led studies on the treatment of drug-susceptible and drug-resistant tuberculosis and authored over 60 manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Mac Kenzie received his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco and trained in both internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He completed a fellowship in infectious diseases at Stanford University. Dr. Mac Kenzie was an EIS officer (Class of 1991) with the Wisconsin Division of Health.