A Pediatrician and Infectious Disease Physician, Dr. Ted Cieslak retired five years ago from his position as Executive Director of Health Security for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, as well as Medical Director of UNMC’s Quarantine Unit and Medical Co-Director of its Biocontainment Unit. He still holds the rank of Adjunct Associate Professor of Epidemiology within the University’s College of Public Health. He also continues to support the Defense Department’s Biosecurity efforts through work with the Institute for Defense Analyses and works to improve the nation’s pediatric disaster preparedness posture through the University of California at San Francisco and the Western Regional Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management (WRAP-EM).

Dr. Cieslak received his BS in Chemistry and his MD degree from The Ohio State University. He went on to complete a Residency in Pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and Fellowship training in Infectious Diseases at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. He also received an MPH degree from the University of North Carolina.

Dr. Cieslak is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and the British Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is board-certified in Pediatrics, Infectious Diseases, and Tropical Medicine, and is a former Army Flight Surgeon. He is past president of the Armed Forces Infectious Disease Society (the military chapter of the IDSA), former Consultant to the Army Surgeon General on Biodefense matters, and former head of the US delegation to NATO’s Biomedical Advisory Committee. From 2007-2010, he held the Defense Department’s seat on the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. He retired from active duty in 2015 after 30 years with the US Army, where his prominent assignments included: Chief of Operational Medicine at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID; 1996-2001); Chairman of the San Antonio Military Pediatric Center (2001-2006); Defense Department Liaison to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC; 2006-2010) and Chief Consultant to the Surgeon General (2010-2013).

COL(Ret) Cieslak deployed three times: In 1994, he was the senior physician in the Cuban refugee camps established in Panama; in 2004, he served a tour in Iraq, where he provided medical care to the soldiers of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st^t Armored Division; in 2014, he served as the medical advisor to Central Command’s forward element in Jordan. Additionally, Dr. Cieslak has worked on Pediatric nutrition projects in Honduras and on the Hepatitis A vaccine trial in Thailand. He has published approximately 130 papers and book chapters, principally in the field of Biodefense. His other areas of interest have included Containment Care, Isolation & Quarantine, Public Health, Disaster Preparedness and Response, Immunization, Travel Medicine, Humanitarian Pediatrics, Animal Bites, and Adoption Medicine.