Speaker Profile

M.D., Dr. P.H., State Health Officer & Director, California Department of Public Health

Biography
Striving to embody and promote the universal values of dignity, equity, compassion and humility, Dr. Aragón works to mobilize communities and institutions to transform policies and systems towards a culture of equity, antiracism, healing and health for all people and our planet. As State Public Health Officer, he exercises leadership and legal authority to protect health and prevent disease. As CDPH Director, he directs a nationally accredited state health department. Prior to coming to CDPH in January, 2021, he was the Health Officer of San Francisco for 10 years. He has served in leadership roles for more than 25 years, including principal investigator and director of a public health emergency preparedness and response research and training center at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. On March 16, 2020, he and six other Bay Area health officers issued the first stay-at-home orders in the US.


 Session Abstract – PMWC 2022 Silicon Valley


The COVID-19 pandemic is driving the unprecedented transformation of the global medical research ecosystem through the search for effective new therapeutics that can help ease symptoms and prevent death among COVID-19 patients.

  • SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak Surveillance (PANEL)
    Session Chair: Charles Chiu, UCSF
    - Bronwyn MacInnis, The Broad Institute
    - Duncan MacCannell, CDC
    - Christopher E. Mason, Weill Cornell Medicine
    - Joel Sevinsky, Theiagen
  • Experiences from the Front Lines of a National Viral Surveillance Organization
    Session Chair: Erin Allday, The San Francisco Chronicle
    - James Lu, Helix
    - Sam Scarpino, Rockefeller Foundation
  • COVID-19 Testing: Who, When, What? The Challenges of Testing During the Pandemic (PANEL)
    Session Chair: Alan Wu, UCSF
    - Gary Pestano, Biodesix
    - John Barnes, CDC
    - Kathleen Jacobson, CA COVID Testing Task Force
  • Updates in COVID-19 Drug Development
    Fireside Chat: Aida Habtezion, Pfizer & Lee Hood, Phenome Health
    - Mark Dresser, Gilead Sciences
    - John Fahy, UCSF
    - Yi Shi, Mount Sinai
  • Evolving SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines
    - Daniela Weiskopf, La Jolla Institute for Immunology
    - Karin Jooss, Gritstone
  • Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions
    - Stacey Adam, FNIH
  • Past, Present, and Future: How will We Manage the Next Pandemic? (PANEL)
    Session Chair: Julianne McCall, California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine
    - Lawrence Corey, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
    - Yvonne A Maldonado, Stanford
    - Robert Wachter, UCSF
    - Tomás Aragón, CDPH
  • PMWC Showcase
    - Anne Wyllie, Yale