Kayla Laserson, PhD 

Kayla Laserson has been at CDC for 11 years.  Currently Kayla Laserson is the Director of the KEMRI/CDC Field Research Station where she oversees a staff of over 950 individuals and a comprehensive research program in HIV, malaria, TB, emerging infectious diseases, demographic surveillance, and programmatic service delivery of HIV care, treatment and prevention programs.  Kayla is the overall principal investigator of the KEMRI/CDC demographic surveillance system, and a co-PI on a phase 3 randomized placebo-controlled multicenter trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a rotavirus vaccine, a multicenter phase 3 malaria vaccine trial, and two cohort studies, one among infants and the other among adolescents, to prepare the KEMRI/CDC demographic surveillance area for the advent of phase 3 tuberculosis vaccine trials.   

Prior to coming to Kenya, Kayla worked as the Deputy Chief of the International TB Branch in the Division of TB Elimination at CDC-Atlanta.  There she supervised a team of medical epidemiologists in the provision of international program support to global tuberculosis programs, in particular to those countries providing the largest number of immigrants with tuberculosis to the US and those contributing the most to the global burden of tuberculosis.   She was responsible for the design and conduct of international tuberculosis investigations, including all epidemiological analysis, and she conducted operations research training to build capacity to facilitate operational research to improve tuberculosis program performance and reduce the tuberculosis burden.

Specifically she was the chief CDC officer for a National TB Program collaboration with the Brazil Ministry of Health; lead supervisor in the design of national studies to evaluate anti-TB drug resistance, the impact of anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy on the epidemiology of TB, and overall treatment outcomes in a national cohort of TB patients.   Kayla was also the chief CDC officer for The U.S.‑Mexico Binational Tuberculosis (TB) Referral and Case Management Project.  This project was a collaboration between international organizations, federal leaders and agencies, state and local TB controllers, and community-based/ non-governmental organizations who provide and facilitate TB care in the United States, Mexico, and along the US-Mexico border, to improve tuberculosis case management and continuity of care for migrants crossing the US-Mexico border while on tuberculosis treatment. 

Dr Laserson Kayla has a Doctor of Science (ScD) Degree and Master of Science (SM) from Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.  Kayla also holds a Bachelor of Arts (AB), History and Science from Harvard.    Kayla Laserson has published widely in reputable scientific publications.