About
Dr. Meghan McGinty is passionate about building the capacity of public health and medical systems, as well as our communities to respond, recover and be resilient in the face of disasters She is also deeply committed to ensuring that we have a competent public health workforce.
Dr. McGinty is experienced as both a disaster researcher and emergency responder. She has conducted research at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, which works to protect people's health from the consequences of epidemics and disasters. Her research has examined health sector resilience, hospital preparedness, allocation of scarce resources during disasters, risk management and communication, and workforce development for public health and healthcare. Her dissertation thesis examined hospital evacuation and shelter-in-place decision making during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
Dr. McGinty previously directed Continuity of Operations Planning at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She was responsible for developing and implementing plans to sustain essential public health services in the event of a disaster. She has also supported preparedness and response initiatives of the U.S. National Response Team, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Public Health Service. Dr. McGinty received the US Surgeon General’s commendation in 2008 for her work providing force readiness and deployment training for the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Most recently, Dr. McGinty served as deputy director of the Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC) at the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), a forum for the leaders of America’s largest metropolitan health departments to exchange strategies and jointly address issues to promote and protect the health and safety of the 56 million people they serve. Dr. McGinty has responded to disasters and public health emergencies including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, Zika and Corona virus (COVID-19).