Richard E. Besser

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Richard E. Besser is an American doctor and health leader. Since April 2017, he has been president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey. Earlier in 2009, he served as acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) from January 22 to June 8, under President Barack Obama. He was ABC News’ chief health and medical editor before that.

Besser grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and graduated from Princeton High School in 1977. He is Jewish, and his brother Mitch is married to Scottish singer Annie Lennox, making Lennox his sister-in-law. He earned a BA in economics from Williams College and an MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1986. He completed pediatrics residency and a chief residency at Johns Hopkins. In 1991 he joined the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service and helped investigate a Boston outbreak of E. coli, which was traced to apple cider. He also worked as a health reporter in San Diego in the 1990s.

As acting CDC director during the 2009 swine flu outbreak, Besser held daily briefings to explain the U.S. response as the virus spread. His updates were praised by doctors such as Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. David Satcher.

In 2014 Case Western Reserve University briefly disinvited him from a talk after he had returned from Liberia; he defended the importance of clear public health communication during crises. He gave the Provost’s Lecture at Oregon State University in 2015. In 2017 he became president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, focusing on public health issues.