Dr. Georges C. Benjamin is the executive director of the American Public Health Association, the nation's oldest and largest organization of public health professionals. He previously was the secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, from 1999 - 2002 following four years as its deputy secretary for public health services. For the last 20 years he has been actively practicing public health at the local, state, and national level with expertise in the areas of emergency preparedness, administration and infectious diseases. Dr. Benjamin serves as publisher of the field's premier journal, the American Journal of Public Health, The Nation's Health Newspaper and the APHA's timeless publication on infectious diseases, the Communicable Disease Manual. Dr. Benjamin is a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois, College of Medicine. He is board-certified in internal medicine and a master of the American College of Physicians; he also is a fellow emeritus of the American College of Emergency Physicians; an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health; a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, and a member of the National Academy of IMedicine of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine.