Internal Advisory Committee

David Stephens, MD

David Stephens is the Executive Associate Dean for Research, the Stephen W. Schwarzmann Distinguished Professor of Medicine, and Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Emory University School of Medicine. Along with his faculty appointments in the Department of Medicine, Dr. Stephens is Professor of Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Heath.

Dr. Stephens came to Emory in 1982 and was named Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine in 1992. His research program has been continuously funded by competitive federal grants since 1981 and has focused on the basis for pathogenesis of the major agents of bacterial meningitis as well as on bacterial vaccines and vaccine strategies. Dr. Stephens’ laboratory is an international leader in efforts to define the molecular basis for virulence of Neisseria meningitidis (the meningococcus), the cause of epidemic bacterial meningitis.

In 1988, Dr. Stephens founded the Atlanta Active Surveillance Project (now the Georgia Emerging Infections Program), a population-based laboratory surveillance and clinical research program focused on bacterial pathogens. In 2001, he led the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) clinical emergency response team in defining clinical issues in prophylaxis, diagnosis, and treatment of B. anthracis infections. Dr. Stephens served as principal investigator for the CDC-supported Southeastern Center for Emerging Biological Threats and the National Institutes of Health-sponsored Southeastern Regional Center of Excellence for Emerging Infections and Biodefense housed at Emory.  He has also contributed to the development of the Emory Vaccine Center, the NIH-sponsored Exploratory Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Vaccinology of the Emory Vaccine Center, and the Emory Center for AIDS Research.

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