Melvin (Mel) Kohn is currently the Executive Director for HPV Vaccines, Global Medical Affairs, MSD. He has been in that role since December of 2019. An epidemiologist and a pediatrician, Mel came to MSD in 2013, after a twenty-year career in governmental public health, including work for Oregon’s state health department as the Public Health Director (2008-2013), and State Epidemiologist (1999-2008). As Public Health Director he oversaw a government agency with approximately 750 staff and an annual budget of $250 million, working on a wide range of public health issues, including communicable disease control, chronic disease prevention, maternal and child health, injury prevention and environmental health. In his first role at MSD he was Global Director of Medical Affairs for Adult Vaccines, focused primarily on pneumococcal vaccines. Form 2017-19 he was lead for the EMEAC Regional Vaccines Medical Affairs Team based in Lyon, France. Mel holds a B.A. from Yale in Russian and East European Studies, an M.D. from Harvard, and a Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology from Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He also completed an Epidemic Intelligence Service fellowship at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has authored over 40 articles on a variety