CDC Advisory Committee Taps Expertise of URMC Expert

Nancy M. Bennett, M.D., director of the Center for Community Health at the University of Rochester Medical Center, has been named to the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Bennett, a professor of Medicine and Community and Preventive Medicine, will serve a four-year term, through June 2015.

The role of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is to provide advice that will lead to a reduction in the incidence of vaccine preventable diseases in the United States and an increase in the safe use of vaccines and related biological products.The ACIP consists of 15 experts in fields associated with immunization who have been selected by the secretary of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide advice and guidance to the secretary, the assistant secretary for health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the control of vaccine-preventable diseases. In addition to the 15 voting members, ACIP includes eight ex officio members who represent other federal agencies with responsibility for immunization programs in the U.S., and 26 non-voting representatives of liaison organizations that bring related immunization expertise.