Faculty & Staff

Secondary/Adjunct Faculty

Patricia Quinlisk, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Quinlisk is a medical epidemiologist practicing at the Iowa Department of Public Health where she functions as both the Medical Director and the State Epidemiologist. Her background includes training as a clinical microbiologist (MT(ASCP)), training microbiologists while a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal, a Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins (with an emphasis in infectious disease epidemiology), a medical degree from the University of Wisconsin, and training as a field epidemiologist in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Epidemic Intelligence Service.

Yearly, for twelve years, she conducted weeklong epidemiologic training courses in Europe, and is a professor at the University of Iowa, the University of Wisconsin (La Crosse) and Iowa State University lectures regularly at these and other educational institutions around the Midwest. She serves, or has served, on several national advisory committees including the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, the Sub-Committee for Vaccine Safety and Communication, the Advisory Committee of the U.S. Marine Corps Chemical/Biological Incident Response Force, the Department of Defense’s Panel to Assess the Capabilities for Domestic Response to Terrorist Acts Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction (the Gilmore Commission), and as President of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE).

She has testified before two Congressional Subcommittees on Public Health aspects of terrorism, and participated on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Microbial Threats to Health in the 21st Century, its Committee on the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism and the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Animal Health at the Crossroads, and Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At this time, she serves on the Management Committee of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers, on CDC’s MMWR editorial board, and is an editor for the Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal.