Meet our Next Speaker
Dr. Elizabeth Cameron
July 29, 2024
Topic: National Security in an Age of Pandemic Threats
Dr. Elizabeth (Beth) Cameron is a Professor of the Practice and Senior Advisor to the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health. She also serves as a senior advisor for global health security at the U.S. Agency for International Development and is a Practitioner Senior Fellow of the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.
Cameron is a global leader in health security and biodefense. She has served for over two decades, within and outside of government, to facilitate change. She spent two tours on the White House National Security Council (NSC) staff, twice helping establish and lead the NSC Directorate on Global Health Security and Biodefense. In this role she built and led a robust team focused, every day, on leaning forward to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to biological crises. Cameron oversaw U.S. global COVID-19 response efforts and was instrumental in developing and launching the Global Health Security Agenda and addressed homeland and national security threats surrounding biosecurity and biosafety, biodefense, emerging infectious disease threats, biological select agents and toxins, dual‐use research, and bioterrorism. She served on the Biden-Harris transition team.
Cameron has held senior posts at the Departments of State and Defense, where she created and oversaw biological and chemical security efforts. From 2010‐2013, she served as office director for Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) and senior advisor for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs. In this role, she oversaw the implementation of the geographic expansion of the Nunn‐Lugar CTR program. For her work, she was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service. From 2003‐2010, Cameron oversaw the expansion of Department of State Global Threat Reduction programs and supported the expansion and extension of the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, a multilateral framework to improve global CBRN security.
Outside of government, Cameron was the Vice President for Biological Policy and Programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and architect of NTI | bio, a program aimed at countering biological catastrophes. There she helped lead the development of the first Global Health Security Index and worked to build international consensus to launch a new global organization geared at improving biosafety and biosecurity.
Cameron got her start in government as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellow in the health policy office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy where she worked on the Patients’ Bill of Rights, medical privacy, and legislation to improve the quality of cancer care. From 2001‐2003, she also served as a manager of policy research for the American Cancer Society.
Cameron holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the Human Genetics and Molecular Biology Program at Johns Hopkins University and a BA in Biology from the University of Virginia. Cameron is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Meetings open to members and members’ guests only. Unless otherwise noted, all meetings take place at Elk Hall, 210 Rankin Street in Rockland. Please plan on arriving by 11:30 AM for noon meetings. The speaker begins promptly at noon and lunch is served from 1 PM.
Audios of Past Presentations
Listed below are links to recent presentations. Click to listen:
- Ambassador Lawrence Butler: NATO at 75—Relevant, Obsolete, or Dangerous?
- Jack Goldsmith on The Decline of Congress in the Conduct of Foreign Affairs, and accompanying slides
- Robert Einhorn on Nuclear Non-proliferation
- Matthew Goodwin on Brexit, Trump, Le Pen, and National Populism
- Ambassador Anne Hall: The Baltic Nations — Profiles in Courage
- Ambassador Jake Walles: The Israel-Gaza Conflict
- Heather Cox Richardson: Democracy Awakening
- John Deutch: Challenges to Future Climate Policy
- Thomas Blanton: The Downsides of Government Secrecy
- Shanthi Kalathil: Challenges to Democracy in the Age of Misinformation
- Ambassador Charles Ray: Why Africa Matters
- Tom Ricks: First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country
- Amna Nawaz: On the Frontlines: Reporting Overseas and Here at Home
- Christopher Costa: Counterterrorism and the Future Terrorism Threat
- Susan Landau: The Reality of Cyberwar — In Ukraine and Elsewhere
- Jon Wolfsthal: Is a New Era of Nuclear Danger Upon Us?
- Amb. Derek Mitchell: Democracy and International Security
- Admiral Michael Rogers: Russia and Ukraine
- Daniel Golden: Ransomware, a Global Challenge
- Ambassador Steven Pifer: Putin’s War: Ramifications and Response
- Christopher Miller: Warnings about America’s most important enemies
- John Sopko: Afghanistan, Lessons Unlearned
- Paul Bodnar: Financing the Low-Carbon Future
- Stacia George: Winning Without Weapons
- Amb. Laura Kennedy: Central Asia (unedited audio)
- David Cooper: Between Disarmament and Armageddon
- Steven Simon: The US and the Middle East: What Went Wrong?
- Jok Madut-Jok: US Military Miltary in Africa: A Source of Influence or a National Security Risk? Download Slides
- Gordon Adams: A new approach to formulating foreign policy
- Richard Kessler: The Effect of Congressional Polarization on Foreign Affairs
- Mitchell Zuckoff: 9/11 and its Aftermath
- Sean McFate: The Future of War
For Would-be New Members:
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How to Contact Us
We can be contacted by email, mail, or phone:
The Mid-Coast Forum on Foreign Relations
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Rockport, ME 04856
207-332-6567