Member, NCCID Advisory Board
Dr. Sevgi O. Aral, PhD, MS, MA, came to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1978 to begin a career in Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) research and in 1993 became the Associate Director for Science in the Division of STD Prevention where she is responsible for the oversight and direction of all scientific activities including the intramural and extramural research programs and science-program interactions. In addition to her appointment at CDC, Dr. Aral has served as a professor of sociology in the United States and Turkey. She has served in the role of mentor for both trainees and colleagues needing help with social science perspectives, bridging the gap between clinical epidemiology and behavior. She currently serves as a clinical professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and has adjunct professorial appointments at Emory University and the University of Manitoba. Dr. Aral has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals including Sexually Transmitted Diseases, AIDS Education and Prevention, Sexually Transmitted Infections, American Journal of Public Health, and AIDS. Currently, she is the Associate Editor of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Sexually Transmitted Infections. In addition to her work at the CDC, Dr. Aral has served in a variety of capacities for other public health institutions including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Union (EU), the World Bank and the Canadian National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCCID). She has been a member of several study sections for the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH); she has worked as a consultant for the WHO, the EU, and the World Bank on numerous occasions in many countries including lengthy periods where she was on temporary assignment to the WHO and the EU, upon invitation. Dr. Aral has over 200 publications on social and behavioral aspects of STD, epidemiology and prevention. Her work has focused on risk and preventive behaviors, gender differences, societal characteristics that influence STD and HIV rates, contextual issues and effects of distinct types of sexual mixing on STD spread. Her research has been in both domestic and international settings and her writings have included cross-cultural comparative analyses. (From cdc.gov)