Dr. Barbara J. Reynolds
Senior Advisor, Crisis and Risk Communication, Office of the Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
At CDC since 1991, Dr. Reynolds’ communication expertise has been used in the planning or response to pandemic influenza, vaccine safety, emerging disease outbreaks and bioterrorism. Internationally, she has acted as a crisis communication consultant on issues for France, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, former Soviet Union nations, NATO and the World Health Organization. She is currently serving as CDC’s senior advisor on crisis and risk communication. Dr. Reynolds is the author of the 2002 and updated 2014 book Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication and CDC’s Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication course, which is now taught in universities and other settings nationwide and internationally. In 2004, she launched
a version of the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication course for leaders that focused on credibility, trust and ethics.
Dr. Reynolds is a social psychologist who, in the past, served as a senior media relations officer specializing in managing reputational risk issues while working with national and international investigative, political and science reporters. She is also an adjunct professor at Tulane University.
