Dr Luis Gerardo Castellanos is unit chief of Communicable Diseases and Environmental Determinants of Health and Neglected, Tropical, and Vector Borne Diseases (CDE/VT) at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). He has extensive experience throughout the Americas, assisting countries in outbreak investigation and control, including the implementation of outbreaks prevention and control strategies in the context of natural disasters. In 2011, he was invited to join the Pan American Health Organization headquarter offices in Washington, DC as unit chief with responsibilities at the continental level.

Currently, he heads all efforts and programs to prevent, control, and eliminate malaria, dengue, Chagas, leprosy, leishmaniasis, and many other neglected and vector-borne infectious disease. His duties also include oversight of PAHO’s Public Health Entomology Program. Prior to his current position, Castellanos had worked at PAHO since 1997, serving in various posts, including medical epidemiologist and international advisor in prevention and control of infectious disease in Honduras, Brazil, Mexico, and the US.

A native of Guatemala, Dr Castellanos earned a Medical degree from San Carlos University’ School of Medicine. After three years of fieldwork at the university, where he provided support to medical students placed in conflict areas to serve communities during the war, he received a scholarship to continue his graduate studies in public health at the University of Puerto Rico. Immediately after earning a master’s degree in Public Health, Dr Castellanos relocated for additional training and later earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Epidemiology at the School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. In 1994, he joined the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he served for two years in the Epidemic Intelligence Service’s Field Epidemiology Training Program. He then worked for the New Mexico Department of Health’s Border Health Office, focusing on international border health issues.