Tara O'Toole, M.D., M.P.H. is CEO and director of the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), and professor of medicine and of public health at the University of Pittsburgh. UPMC’s Center for Biosecurity is an independent organization dedicated to improving the country’s resilience to major biological threats. Prior to founding the center in 2003, Dr. O’Toole was one of the original members of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies and served as its director from 2001 to 2003. She has served on numerous government and expert advisory committees dealing with biodefense. In 2004, she was elected Chair of the Board of the Federation of American Scientists, and in 2006 she was appointed to the Board of the Google Foundation’s International Networked System for Total Early Disease Detection. From 1993 to 1997, Dr. O’Toole served as assistant secretary for Environment Safety and Health at the Department of Energy. Prior to that, she was a senior analyst at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, where she directed studies of the health impact of pollution resulting from nuclear weapons production, among other projects. Dr. O’Toole practiced general internal medicine in community health centers in Baltimore from 1984 to 1988. She is board certified in internal medicine and in occupational and environmental health. She has a bachelor's degree from Vassar College, an M.D. from the George Washington University, and an M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University. She completed internal medicine residency training at Yale and a fellowship in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. At the National Academies, Dr. O’Toole served on the Working Group on Biological Weapons Control, and is currently serving on the Committee on Technical and Privacy Dimensions of Information for Terrorism Prevention and Other National Goals.