With new COVID-19 cases rising in at least 40 states and total U.S. infections eclipsing 9.3 million, School of Public Health Regents Professor Michael Osterholm has been selected as a member of President-elect Joe Biden’s Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board.

The board — comprising leading public health experts — was recently announced as part of a federal response by Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, and the Transition’s COVID-19 staff.

Osterholm will join a team of leading experts and scientists consulting with state and local officials to determine the public health and economic steps necessary to get the virus under control, deliver immediate relief to working families, address ongoing racial and ethnic disparities, and reopen schools and businesses safely and effectively.

“I’m very honored to support our nation’s critical response to COVID-19 in any way I can, using the best science possible and applying all I have learned in my 45 years of state, federal and international public health work,” says Osterholm.

Osterholm served in 2018 and 2019 as a Science Envoy for Health Security on behalf of the State Department. For 24 years (1975 to 1999), he worked in the Minnesota Department of Health, the last 15 years as state epidemiologist.

The Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board will be led by co-chairs David Kessler, Vivek Murthy, and Marcella Nunez-Smith.

This post was derived from a press release originally issued by University Public Relations.