Michelle Bonds, MBA, leads the CDC Division of Public Affairs (DPA). As division director, she oversees CDC’s diverse public affairs portfolio, including media relations, digital communications and partnerships, community outreach, employee engagement, and the CDC David J. Sencer Museum, with the responsibility to deliver clear, concise, and crucial information to protect the health of our nation and the American people.

Ms. Bonds has nearly 30 years of strategic communications, partner engagement, employee communication, national media relations, behavior change campaign development, and federal public affairs. Over the course of her 22 years with the CDC, Michelle has served in a variety of roles, leading teams that conduct executive communication, issues management, and campaigns, including the iconic and the agency’s largest and longest-running HIV/AIDS awareness campaign, America Respond to AIDS. She began her career in the CDC Division of STD, serving as field staff in California and Maryland.

Michelle has been a leader for health equity in communication and public affairs throughout her career at CDC, and most recently has been a speaker on health equity issues both within CDC and at other organizations, including the CSELS Science and Health Equity Seminar Series and at the New Communicators Network. Michelle convened the Health Equity Guiding Principles for Inclusive Communication working group which developed and launched the Health Equity Guiding Principles for Inclusive Communication.

In addition to her federal service, Michelle has extensive private-sector experience with health communication agencies managing health marketing and public relations portfolios focused on injury prevention, maternal health, HIV/AIDS and TB prevention and screening and occupational health. In addition to the domestic portfolio, she led similar programs in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Mexico. Michelle, a former broadcast journalist, also held positions in marketing and management positions at the Morehouse School of Medicine and IBM.

Michelle earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a concentration on international business from Mercer University. {/sliders}