Flu Fighter: Ann Moen

Meet flu fighter Ann Moen, former associate director for Preparedness and Response in CDC’s Influenza Division (ID), who retired on December 31, 2022, after 39 years of federal service at CDC.

Ann Moen started her career in the Peace Corps helping to build laboratory capacity in Thailand. She began her career at CDC in 1985 as a laboratory scientist in the Center for Environmental Health Laboratory Services and then the Special Pathogens Branch. She spent 7 years working in a Biosafety Level-4 (BSL-4) laboratory conducting studies on Ebola, Lassa Fever, and other hemorrhagic fevers. She then went on to help build community health center capacity in the Southeast United States through the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Division of Community Health Services. She returned to CDC in 1999 when she was hired as the deputy chief for the Influenza Branch, which today is the Influenza Division.

Ann played crucial roles in shaping both the Influenza Division itself as well as global influenza capacity. She served as the deputy branch chief, associate director for ID’s Extramural Program, and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief of the Influenza Preparedness and Response Unit. While serving in her most recent role as the associate director for Preparedness and Response, she also served as acting lead for the Field Staff Support Unit, overseeing all program activities and field staff in the international influenza program. During her years with the Influenza Division, the agency’s international influenza program grew from collaborations with WHO as a WHO Collaborating Center for Influenza to a program spanning all regions of the globe with direct support and technical assistance to over 70 countries.

Name: Ann Moen, MBA

Title: Former Associate Director for Preparedness and Response in CDC’s Influenza Division, NCIRD

Location: Atlanta, GA

1. What role did you play in fighting flu?
   In my former position, I supported national and international preparedness work ranging from policy development to capacity building internationally. For the last 20 years, I served as a temporary advisor and provided multiple consultations to WHO’s regional and country offices. I also advised on many topics, including support for monitoring evaluation and technical assistance for the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework implementation and on the expansion of the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System.

2. In looking back at your career, what are you most proud of?
   I feel privileged to have had a career focused on international capacity building. Starting with setting up a hospital laboratory in rural Thailand as a Peace Corps volunteer to setting up the international capacity building program for the Influenza Division, I feel like I have come full circle. The impact CDC has had globally with improved surveillance and capacity is so clear. Without our program, the progress and capacities in regions like Africa, would not have existed for the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and the recent COVID-19 pandemic. I am proud of the role I have played in the development of these capacities with my CDC colleagues and our many international partners.
3. What do other flu fighters say about Ann’s contributions?
   “Ann’s strategic, visionary leadership in ID helped foster the robust influenza global capacity programs at CDC and WHO. She was instrumental in developing and advancing global and domestic influenza programs and shaping related policies, especially for international laboratory and surveillance capacity building and pandemic preparedness. Ann always enthusiastically worked to do whatever was needed to advance domestic and global influenza capacity. It is because of her that influenza programs are in a better place worldwide.”