Ken Castro, MD

Professor Emeritus Kenneth G. Castro, MD, FIDSA is a physician-scientist trained in epidemiology, with a specialty in internal medicine and subspecialty in infectious diseases. Before accepting a full-time faculty position at Emory University in 2014, his career experience included 31 years of service at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with promotion to Assistant Surgeon General, U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps. Starting with CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service in 1983, he contributed to the early epidemiological characterization and description of risk factors associated with HIV/AIDS and later spearheaded the development and publication of the 1993 classification system for HIV and expanded case definition for AIDS. Subsequently, he contributed to diverse outbreak investigations of nosocomial HIV-associated multidrug resistant-tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and TB transmission in different settings – including airplane flights, and to advancing research through CDC-sponsored TB Trials Consortium and TB Epidemiologic Studies Consortium. At CDC, he was selected to leadership positions as Director, Division of Tuberculosis Elimination (1993-2013), and Acting Director, Division of HIV/AIDS (2013-2014). He held Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) awards as Senior Tuberculosis (TB) Scientific Advisor, Office of Infectious Disease, Bureau for Global Health, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID, 2014-2025). Together with Drs. Gandhi and Rengarajan, he co-founded and is co-director of the Emory TB Center. An award-winning author of more than 200 scholarly and evidence-based policy publications, he serves as a peer reviewer for numerous scientific journals and in the editorial board of the journals International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Public Health Reports, and Emerging Infectious Diseases. A native Puerto Rican, Dr. Castro speaks fluent Spanish and has frequently served as advisor to the Puerto Rico Department of Health, the Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization, and several Ministries of Health in countries where TB and HIV constitute major public health problems. He is a founding member of the global Stop TB Partnership, where he served in its Executive Committee and Coordinating Board. In addition to numerous USPHS awards and medals, other professional recognitions include the prestigious Juan Carlos Finlay award (2008, conferred by the Hispanic Officers Advisory Committee, USPHS Commissioned Corps), being profiled in The Lancet's Oct 22, 2011 issue as a “Public Health Hero," the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, North America Region, and the Lifetime Achievement Award conferred by the U.S. Agency for International Development (both in 2014). He was promoted to the status of Fellow, Infectious Diseases Society of America (2015), and received the prestigious CDC Charles C. Shepard Lifetime Science Achievement Award (2016). He was elected as member of the honorary American Epidemiological Society (2018) and co-recipient, The Union’s Karel Styblo Public Health Prize – awarded to the Former USAID TB Division (2025). For added details and publications, see: https://sph.emory.edu/profile/faculty/kenneth-castro