 dr joseph perz currently serves as the deputy chief for public health programs within the prevention and response branch division of healthcare quality promotion at the centers for disease control and prevention in atlanta georgia dr perz entered the field of public health after training as an engineer and environmental scientist after receiving a doctorate in public health from columbia university he served as an epidemic intelligence service officer with the tennessee department of health since the early 2000s dr perz has worked at cdc headquarters guiding dozens of outbreak investigations and special studies drawing attention to the needs for injection safety and other basic infection control he has authored or co authored numerous peer reviewed journal articles mmwr articles and book chapters his activities are currently focused on building support for health departments fostering interagency collaboration and promoting efforts to improve and expand prevention and response activities across all healthcare sectors 