William Foege

William Foege is an epidemiologist recognized for his work in the successful campaign to eradicate smallpox in the 1970s. Foege is Emeritus Professor in Global Health at Emory.

Foege became Chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Smallpox Eradication Program and was appointed director of CDC in 1977. In 1984, he and several colleagues formed the Task Force for Child Survival, a working group for the World Health Organization, UNICEF, The World Bank, United Nations Development Program, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Foege was Executive Director of The Carter Center from 1986-1992. After his tenure as Executive Director, he became a Fellow for health policy and Executive Director of the Task Force.

In 1997, Foege was appointed Presidential Distinguished Professor of International Health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. In 1999, Foege became the Senior Medical Advisor for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

He retired from the Gates Foundation in 2011, and that same year he authored "House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox," a book on modern science, medicine, and public health over the smallpox disease.

In 2012, he was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In September of 2020, he sent a letter to the CDC's director, Robert R. Redfield, urging him to acknowledge the CDC's poor response to the COVID-19 pandemic in writing. That same year, Foege was named co-chair of the Committee on Equitable Allocation of Vaccine for the Novel Coronavirus.

Foege received his medical degree from the University of Washington and his Master’s in Public Health from Harvard University. Foege is a former member of the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize jury and the Board of Regents of Pacific Lutheran University.