Skip to main content
NATCON24 Main banner
Back

Deirdre Kittner, PhD, MPH

Director
Office on Smoking and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, Georgia

Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, PHD, MPH

Dr. Kittner is the Director of the Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) at CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. In this position, she provides leadership and direction for OSH’s scientific, policy, communications, research translation, and programmatic strategies to prevent tobacco product initiation, encourage cessation, reduce secondhand smoke exposure, and identify health disparities to advance health equity. Dr. Kittner has more than 20 years of public health experience with a focus on domestic and global tobacco surveillance and control, elimination of commercial tobacco-related health disparities, and tobacco regulatory science.

Before joining CDC in 2021, Dr. Kittner was the Deputy Director of FDA’s Office of Science at the Center for Tobacco Products, where she served as an advisor to the Director and the health equity workgroup and oversaw the tobacco regulatory science research program that assessed the potential public health impact of tobacco products and tobacco regulatory actions. Prior to that, Dr. Kittner directed the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ International Research unit and held previous positions at Pinney Associates (2010-2015) and NIH’s National Cancer Institute (2000-2010) where she led research initiatives to improve tobacco surveillance and eliminate health disparities. She was NIH’s first Mansfield Fellow (2005-2007) and has served on workgroups and committees for FDA’s Emerging Sciences Council, NIH’s Tobacco Research Network on Disparities, Johns Hopkins University’s Global Tobacco Control Online Course, NCI’s Office of International Affairs, and the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Cancer Research Program. Dr. Kittner earned a PhD in toxicology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MPH in quantitative methods from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a BS in Biology from Spelman College.

Presentation(s):