Aileen Marty

Talk Title: Climate Change is Raising the Risk of Pandemics – How is this happening, and how can we stop it?

Dr. Marty is a seasoned physician and physician-scientist with over 45 years of clinical and research experience. Her research, which began in 1976 with vision studies in lemon sharks, has since encompassed a broad range of topics including helminthic infections, vaccine health impacts, leprosy epidemiology, and Ebola virus pathogenesis. She has made significant contributions to understanding disease surveillance and the public health implications of diseases, considering legal, medical, and sociological factors.

In her clinical practice, Dr. Marty has specialized in tropical medicine across various continents including the Americas, Africa, and Asia. She played a pivotal role in creating the Military Tropical Medicine course as part of an 8-member Blue-Ribbon Panel. The program she co-developed conducts “Med-Ready” operations globally, where medical teams provide care in low-and-middle-income countries, fostering US international relations, training physicians in tropical medicine, and gathering epidemiological data on infectious diseases. The course covers a wide range of tropical and emerging infectious diseases, with a focus on syndromic approaches and specific diseases that pose outbreak risks, such as viral hemorrhagic fevers, malaria, and Zika virus.

Currently, Dr. Marty holds a Distinguished University Professorship with joint appointments in CASE and Translational Medicine. She continues to contribute to military tropical medicine education and serves as an attending physician with the FIU-FAST team, part of the U.S. Southern Command’s Enduring Promise initiative.

Dr. Marty has been influential on national and international levels, serving on boards for the World Health Organization, as a Weapons inspector for the United Nations, and advising the White House and the National Security Council. Her expertise spans both practical medicine and policy-making. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she played a critical role in establishing a High Complexity laboratory at FIU for COVID-19 diagnosis, treated numerous patients, and provided strategic counsel to various governmental and private entities.

Her expertise encompasses travel, tropical, and infectious disease medicine and pathology, with a specialization in analyzing medical and scientific risks associated with foreign emerging infectious diseases, emergency preparedness, medical countermeasures, and the medical response to mass casualty events and public health safety. Dr. Marty is a respected source for media on medical and scientific developments and offers strategic insights for public health planning.