Dr. Céline Rani Gounder, MD, ScM, FIDSA

Trained at Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Washington, and Harvard University, Céline Gounder is an internist, infectious disease specialist, and epidemiologist. She is a CBS News Medical Contributor, a Senior Fellow KFF, and Editor-at-Large for Public Health at KFF Health News. Dr. Gounder is also a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine. She cares for patients on the wards at Bellevue Hospital Center. She is also a member of NYU Stern’s Volatility and Risk Institute’s Faculty Advisory Board. She is one of the world’s leading experts in science, medicine, and public health communication. Gounder is best known for her coverage of health inequities and the COVID, Ebola, Zika, mental health, opioid overdose, gun violence, and disinformation epidemics.

Gounder has advised local and national policymakers on COVID, MPOX, Ebola, and more, including through her service on the Biden-Harris Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board. She has testified before the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee and has been interviewed several times by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.

Prior to joining CBS, Gounder was a CNN Medical Analyst and a guest expert on numerous other networks. Throughout the COVID pandemic alone, she gave almost 100 guest lectures ranging from TIME Person of the Year Debates, Washington Post Live, and Wired Health to the American Medical Association and the American College of Cardiology to the Bronx Health Committee and Nassau Tabernacle of Praise Church in New York City. She has published almost 100 op-eds in publications like The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post. She’s also a frequent guest on NPR and other radio and podcast programs.

Gounder founded Just Human Productions, a non-profit multimedia organization, which produced two podcasts: “American Diagnosis,” a conversation about some of the biggest public health challenges across the United States, including teen mental health, the opioid overdose and gun violence epidemics, maternal health disparities, environmental racism, climate gentrification, and indigenous health; and “Epidemic,” a podcast about infectious disease epidemics and pandemics. Season 1 of “Epidemic” covered the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and Season 2 goes back in time to cover smallpox eradication from the Indian subcontinent and lessons for the present day.

She received her BA in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, her Master of Science in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her MD from the University of Washington. Dr. Gounder was an intern and resident in Internal Medicine at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital, and a post-doctoral fellow in Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University. She was elected a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in 2016. In 2017, People Magazine named her one of 25 Women Changing the World. In 2021, InStyle Magazine named her one of 50 Women Making the World a Better Place. In 2023, she was named one of New York City & State’s Health Care Power 100, a New York State Woman of Distinction, and a National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine. In 2023, she was also elected to the National Academy of Medicine, and received the Research!America Meeting the Moment for Public Health Award, and joined the Council on Foreign Relations. She and her podcast production team won the 2023 Edward R. Murrow Award for a podcast by a small digital organization for American Diagnosis S4E5 “Power to Police Perpetrators.” In 2024, she joined the Board of Research!America and the Communication Initiative Advisory Panel of the Coalition for Trust in Health and Science.