Dennis M. Perrotta, Ph.D., C.I.C.

Dennis M. Perrotta, Ph.D., C.I.C., is the Texas State Epidemiologist, Texas Department of Health. He is doctorally trained in epidemiology from The University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston and holds a master's degree in microbiology from The University of Texas at San Antonio. Dr. Perrotta received his undergraduate degree in biology from St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas. He is board certified in infection control and has worked in state level public health epidemiology for more than 22 years. He returned to Texas in 1986 after four years as assistant state epidemiologist in Utah. Dr. Perrotta's experience spans a wide range of subject areas, including bioterrorism preparedness, asthma, environmental health and infectious disease epidemiology.

He recently served as president of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists and as president of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board. Dr. Perrotta served on the 1997-99 Institutes of Medicine (IOM) Committee to Improve Civilian Medical Response to Chemical and Biological Terrorism, a 2001 committee on evaluating the Metropolitan Medical Response System, and is a member of the IOM Forum on Pandemic Influenza. Texas Commissioner of Health Eduardo Sanchez, M.D., M.P.H., appointed Dr. Perrotta as the executive director of Texas Preparedness and Response to Biological Terrorism in 2002, leading state health department efforts regarding bioterrorism preparedness.

Dr. Perrotta is an adjunct associate professor of epidemiology at Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health and the University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston, and is an adjunct associate professor of community health nursing at The University of Texas School of Nursing, where he teaches graduate level epidemiology. He is the principal investigator on two major bioterrorism-preparedness grants and a grant on emerging infectious diseases.