Tara O'Toole is an American physician who served as the

Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Science and Technology The Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Science and Technology is a high level civilian official in the United States Department of Homeland Security. The Under Secretary, as head of the Science and Technology Directorate at DHS, is the pr ...

from 2009 to 2013. She is currently a senior fellow and executive vice president at

In-Q-Tel In-Q-Tel (IQT), formerly Peleus and In-Q-It, is an American not-for-profit venture capital firm based in Arlington, Virginia. It invests in companies to keep the Central Intelligence Agency, and other intelligence agencies, equipped with the lates ...

Background

Prior to her confirmation as Under Secretary (November 4, 2009), O'Toole founded, and served as chief executive officer and director of, the Center for Biosecurity at the

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center UPMC is an American integrated delivery system, integrated global nonprofit health enterprise that has 100,000 employees, 40 hospitals with more than 8,000 licensed beds, 800 clinical locations including outpatient sites and doctors' offices, a ...

. Concurrently, she was a Professor of Medicine and of Public Health at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

. She stepped down from her position as Under Secretary on September 23, 2013 From 2006 to 2007, she chaired the board of the

Federation of American Scientists The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is an American nonprofit global policy think tank with the stated intent of using science and scientific analysis to attempt to make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1945 by a group of scient ...

. In 2006, she was appointed to the board of the Google Foundation's International Networked System for Total Early Disease Detection. From 2001 to 2003, she directed the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies. From 1993 to 1997, she served as the Assistant Secretary for Environment Safety and Health in the

Department of Energy A ministry of energy or department of energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-rela ...

. From 1984 to 1988, she practiced general internal medicine in community health centers in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Disaster response exercises

O'Toole is best known for her pre-pandemic disaster response exercises. She was a principal author and producer of Dark Winter (2001) and Atlantic Storm (2005), both of which simulated a covert outbreak of smallpox in the United States. Many experts applauded these exercises for publicizing the country's surprising vulnerabilities, including a vaccine shortage. Critics charged that these exercises exaggerated the

bioterror Bioterrorism is terrorism involving the intentional release or dissemination of biological agents. These agents include bacteria, viruses, insects, fungi, and/or their toxins, and may be in a naturally occurring or a human-modified form, in muc ...

threat, leading to "an unnecessary increase in the number of research labs." In her nomination hearing, O'Toole said that this controversy stemmed from her estimated "secondary transmission rate"; that is, the number of smallpox infections caused as a result of the initial infections. O'Toole claimed that her rate of 10 derived from "the available empirical data" and coincided with data from a 2001 article in the peer-reviewed journal, ''Nature''."The Pathology of Experimental Aerosolized Monkeypox Virus Infection in Cynomolgus Monkeys (Macaca fascicularis)," ''Nature'' (May 2, 2001)
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Education

O'Toole holds a bachelor's degree from

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

, an MD from

George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (abbreviated as GW Medical School, GW Medicine, or SMHS) is the professional medical school of the George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. SMHS is one of the most ...

, and a Master of Public Health degree from

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Johns Hopkins University, a private university, private research university primarily based in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded as the Johns Hopkins ...

. In addition, she finished an internal medicine residency at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and a fellowship in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Johns Hopkins University.

References

External links

Official biography

Congressional testimony for nomination as Under Secretary

WhoRunsGov.com profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:OToole, Tara George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences alumni Living people Physicians from Maryland United States Department of Homeland Security officials Women government officials University of Pittsburgh faculty Vassar College alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health alumni