Katherine E. Bliss

Senior Fellow and Director, Immunizations and Health Systems Resilience, Global Health Policy Center
Katherine E. Bliss

Katherine E. Bliss brings her expertise in the social sciences, Latin American studies, and international relations to her work analyzing U.S. government support for health programs in low- and middle-income countries. She is particularly interested in how political and cultural perspectives shape approaches to such global health challenges as HIV/AIDS; vaccine-preventable diseases; and access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Trained as a historian, Katherine spent the early part of her career teaching at the university level and publishing books and articles on gender relations and public health in twentieth-century Mexico. A Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship enabled her to shift her focus to global health policy, placing her at the U.S. Department of State, where she worked on environmental health issues and the development of foreign policy approaches to pandemic preparedness. At CSIS, Katherine has previously served as deputy director and senior fellow within both the Americas Program and Global Health Policy Center, where she oversaw a multi-program project on the influence of the BRICS countries on the global health agenda and directed the Project on Global Water Policy. Her recent work has examined the health situation in the context of the Venezuelan political crisis and the challenges facing immunization programs within fragile or disordered settings. Katherine received her A.B. in history and literature, magna cum laude, from Harvard College and her Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago. She completed a David E. Bell Fellowship at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.

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The CommonHealth

Heidi Larson, Chair and Co-Founder of the Global Listening Project: “The people part of the Covid experience was our Achilles heel”

In this episode, Heidi Larson, Professor of Anthropology, Risk and Decision Science at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, speaks with Katherine about the goals of the Global Listening Project, which is focused on “driving real understanding and positive action to better prepare society for times of crisis.” 

Podcast Episode by Katherine E. Bliss — November 27, 2023

Photo: iLab/CSIS
The CommonHealth

Jenelle Krishnamoorthy, Vice President and Head of Global Public Policy, Corporate Affairs, Merck & Co.: “Driving Meaningful and Sustained Progress on AMR”

In this episode Merck’s Jenelle Krishnamoorthy, a member of the CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Global Health Security, joins Katherine to discuss the growing challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR); the importance of incentivizing research and development of new amicrobials, even as there is pressure to use them in a limited way; plans for a United Nations High-Level Meeting on AMR in 2024; and opportunities to improve funding, governance, and international collaboration to meet the global threat of AMR in the years to come.

Podcast Episode by Katherine E. Bliss — November 16, 2023

Photo: iLab/CSIS

Centering PEPFAR in U.S. Global Health Security Strategies

The CSIS Working Group on Reinvigorating U.S. Leadership on HIV/AIDS offers recommendations for advancing progress on reaching the goal of eliminating HIV as a global public health threat by 2030 while maximizing the contributions to pandemic preparedness and response.

Brief by Katherine E. Bliss — October 19, 2023

The CommonHealth

Sera Young, Northwestern University: “Accountability is probably the most powerful tool that we have”

In this episode, Sera Young discusses the relationship between gender and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and explains why it’s important to gather data, not just about men’s and women’s access to water and sanitation infrastructure, but also about how individuals’ experience of water insecurity affects their physical and mental health.

Podcast Episode by Katherine E. Bliss and Sera Young — August 3, 2023

Photo: iLab/CSIS

Strengthening Global Health Security through Critical Immunization Programs

For the United States, closing global gaps in access to immunizations for children while preparing health systems to both maintain health services and reach adolescent and adult populations with new vaccines during a health crisis is a matter of national security. 

Brief by Katherine E. Bliss — July 20, 2023