Dr. Gavin Macgregor-Skinner

Gavin Macgregor-Skinner
Director
Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC)

Dr. Gavin Macgregor-Skinner is the Director of the Global Biorisk Advisory Council, a Division of ISSA, and has more than 25 years of technical experience in responding to infectious disease outbreaks and emergency management and has worked with U.S. and international governments, United Nations agencies, and the private sector in the U.S., Africa, Asia, Middle East, and Latin America. For the COVID-19 pandemic, he conducted onsite biological risk assessments and provided “just-in-time” training on infection prevention and control, cleaning and disinfection, and safe working practices for frontline workers in hospital emergency departments, assisted-living and nursing homes, public transport workers, and hotel staff and other essential employees.

He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Penn State College of Medicine and teaches three graduate courses on Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Terrorist Emergencies. In 2014 he received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in teaching. He was the Director of Strategic Partnerships in Disaster Medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine for the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Fellowship in Disaster Medicine program in Boston.

Dr. Macgregor-Skinner was invited and funded by the Nigerian Government to lead a team from the Elizabeth R. Griffin Foundation to conduct seminars and training workshops and establish Hospital Ebola Isolation Suites. At the invitation of US State Departments of Health and local hospitals, he conducted onsite biological risk management assessments for highly infectious diseases including Ebola and seminars and workshops at hospitals in the States of California, Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Alabama and Tennessee, including Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. He had three trips to West Africa for U.S. Government Agencies and United Nations Agencies treating Ebola patients and implementing whole community approaches for contact tracing and infection prevention in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria.

He has appeared on CNN, Fox News, BBC, Canada CTV, Australia ABC, C-SPAN, and other news outlets to share his expertise on High Consequence Pathogens such as Coronavirus, Ebola, Influenza, Measles, Cholera, Zika and other global health threats. After serving 12-years in the Australian and British militaries, he was selected by the U.K. Department for International Development for its Associate Professional Officer Scheme. He learned epidemiology as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the U.S. CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, and was a global health fellow at USAID in Washington DC. His passion is engaging networks of experts who share knowledge and experiences to increase the global understanding of risk and preparedness, cultures of safety, and high reliability organizations.