William Schluter

Director of the Global Immunization Division in the Center for Global Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) USA

Dr Schluter is a family medicine physician, trained in public health through both his MSPH and the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Officer programme. He has spent his career working for CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) in various assignments around the world (e.g. has lived and worked in Ethiopia, Nepal, and The Philippines) supporting country immunisation programmes. He has extensive experience with introducing new vaccines into the EPI programme, with conducting vaccine campaigns, with routine immunisation coverage measurement, disease surveillance, and with establishing NITAGs. He has served in WHO country offices, in WHO Regional Offices and at CDC where he now serves as the Director of the Global Immunization Division in the Center for Global Health.

He has worked on control of vaccine-preventable diseases for more than 20 years in a variety of settings. Most recently, Dr Schluter was on detail from CDC to the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office, from 2012 to 2017, serving as the Group Lead for Accelerated Disease Control for the Expanded Program on Immunization Unit providing support to the 37 countries and areas of the Western Pacific. Prior to that position, he was detailed to the WHO Nepal Country Office, from 2009 to 2012, as the Team Lead for the Immunization Preventable Diseases Unit and to the WHO Ethiopia Country Office, from 2004-2007, coordinating programmatic and surveillance activities for vaccine preventable diseases. In summary, Dr Schluter has expertise in immunisation programmes at the country level. He is deeply involved with Gavi in his role as a core partner and through that role has substantial knowledge of Gavi strategy and implementation.