Catherine Brown, DVM, MS, MPH
State Epidemiologist and State Public Health Veterinarian at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Dr. Catherine Brown is the State Epidemiologist and State Public Health Veterinarian at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH).
As the State Epidemiologist, Dr. Brown is responsible for overseeing surveillance for over 90 reportable infectious diseases as well as guiding surveillance data analysis and dissemination. She collaborates closely with other leaders in the Department of Public Health to provide policy recommendations. She is passionate about collecting and using data for public health action and recognizes the critical importance of data-sharing across public health sectors to advance health equity and improve the lives of individuals and communities.
As a veterinarian, she is deeply involved with the animal, human and environmental interface and the increasing risk that zoonotic and vector-borne diseases pose to humans. She has published on multiple zoonotic and vector-borne diseases of public health importance and is a nationally recognized subject matter expert on the topic of rabies, participating on several ACIP workgroups on rabies pre-and post-exposure prophylaxis and co-authoring multiple articles on rabies in Up To Date.
Dr. Brown teaches regularly for Tufts University, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and is an invited guest lecturer at multiple universities in Massachusetts. She is very proud of several awards including a 2010 MDPH Public Health Champion award, 2013 Commonwealth of Massachusetts Workforce Mentoring award, and the 2023 CSTE Distinguished Leader Award.
Dr. Brown completed her DVM at the University of Minnesota and went on to receive a Master of Science in Wild Animal Health from the University of London, Royal Veterinary College and a Master of Public Health from Boston University. Following a decade of clinical veterinary practice, most of them in urban wildlife medicine, Dr, Brown turned a growing interest in public health and communication into a career. In 2005, she was awarded a CDC-funded, CSTE Applied Epidemiology Fellowship at the New York State Department of Health.