When Dr. Julie Ger- berding was 4 years old, she received a toy medical kit as a Christmas gift. She loved using it to take care of her dolls and stuffed animals. These playtimes made such a deep impression on her that she decided she would become a real doctor one day. That was different from the goals of most children in the small farming town in South Dakota where she grew up. Few people even went to college. The only person she knew who had gone to medical school was her pediatrician. She realized she needed to work hard and get good grades to achieve her dream. But she was determined— and she succeeded. As an adult, Dr. Gerberding has focused on ways to prevent infectious diseases from spread- ing from one person to another person. Her experience led her to work at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The govern- ment organization—which is called the CDC for short—plays an important role in dealing with health problems that affect many people such as obesity and flu. Dr. Gerberding’s first job at the CDC was to help stop infections that can spread among patients in hospitals. Soon after the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001, she got a request from then-President George W. Bush. He asked her to become the director of the entire CDC. Officials were worried about terrorist attacks that could make people sick. She believes she was asked to take the job because of her extensive experience working in high-pressure, life-and-death situations. “I was used to making decisions in a crisis,” she says. In the eight years she held the top job at the CDC, she had to deal with more than 40 health crises. She explains that the CDC has to move quickly to solve problems, from disease outbreaks to contaminated food. To help, the agency’s emer- gency operations center is stocked with high-tech tools so medical experts can be in contact with people near and far away to gather information and make decisions. She says her greatest accomplishments at the CDC included helping younger staff members to develop their skills and expertise and building new laboratories and other facilities. Many of the agency’s buildings were not in good condition when she arrived, she says. Soon after leaving the CDC, she joined Merck, a worldwide pharmaceutical company. Her task was to lead the company’s work on vaccines to Julie Gerberding Preventing diseases from spreading 18