Dr. Rebecca Leeb is a Health Scientist/Epidemiologist in the Division of Population Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where her work is focused on expanding CDC’s capacity to address emotional well-being at the population-level. Trained as a Developmental Psychologist, Dr. Leeb has served in CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (2002-2010) where she led the CDC’s work to improve public health tracking and monitoring of child abuse and neglect, including publication of CDC’s Child Maltreatment Surveillance-Uniform Definitions for Public Health and Recommended Data Elements. From 2010 to 2021, Dr. Leeb served in the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities where she focused on children’s emotional well-being, children’s disaster related mental health, adolescent mental health and transition to adulthood, and mental health surveillance. Dr. Leeb has participated in numerous CDC emergency responses and most recently served for more than 150 days on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She is the author of recent publications including reports describing healthcare transitions for adolescents with mental, behavioral and developmental disorders and children’s mental health-related emergency department visits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Amelia Burke-Garcia is a seasoned health communications professional with nearly 20 years of experience in public health communication program planning, implementation and evaluation, with specific expertise in developing and evaluating digital health communications campaigns and intervention studies. Currently, Dr. Burke-Garcia is a Program Area Director in the Public Health Department at NORC at the University of Chicago where she directs the How Right Now/Que’ Hacer Ahora campaign, which is aimed at increasing people’s ability to cope and be resilient amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the course of her career, Dr. Burke-Garcia has spearheaded some of the most innovative communication programs and studies on a variety of health topics including investigating perspectives and motivations of non-vaccinating online influencers, designing a targeted intervention with social media influencers to help lower their readers' risk for breast cancer, and leveraging MeetUp groups and the Waze mobile application to move people to action around flu vaccination and HIV testing, respectively. Her book entitled, Influencing Health: A Comprehensive Guide to Working with Online Influencers, was released in 2019 by Routledge Press. She has been named to VeryWellHealth.com’s list of 10 Modern Female Innovators Shaking Up Health Care and was also named as Diverse Health Hub’s Woman of the Week. She holds a PhD in Communication from George Mason University, a Master’s degree in Communication, Culture, and Technology from Georgetown University, and a joint honors Bachelor’s degree in International Development Studies and Humanistic Studies from McGill University.

Dr. Lela R. McKnight-Eily is a Behavioral Scientist and Clinical Psychologist on the Intervention Research Team in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. Dr. McKnight-Eily is lead author of the recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on Racial and Ethnic Disparities titled Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Prevalence of Stress and Worry, Mental Health Conditions, and Increased Substance Use Among Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Additionally, she works to prevent HIV transmission in incarcerated persons rejoining the community and examines the impact of trauma-informed care on HIV transmission. Previously, Dr. McKnight-Eily led programmatic/scientific efforts to increase alcohol screening and brief intervention (alcohol SBI) in primary care to prevent risky alcohol consumption and harms like Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders or FAS. Prior to joining the FAS team, she led several science-based initiatives within the CDC alcohol program with a focus on policy. She has served as a lead scientist, subject matter expert and epidemiologist for mental health and sleep work in National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Dr. McKnight-Eily came to the CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in 2005, in the Office on Smoking and Health’s Global Tobacco Control Program/Epidemiology Branch.

Cynthia Crick, MPH is currently serving as a Health Communications campaign and Special Projects Advisor in CDC's Division of Population Health. Cynthia is an experienced Public Health Professional. She is an expert communicator with about 25 years of US Government experience. Skilled in Health Communication, Social Media Strategy, Campaign Management, Partnership Development, and Media Relations. MPH from Emory University.