Melinda Wharton

United States

Independent Expert

Dr. Melinda Wharton served as the Associate Director for Vaccine Policy and Executive Secretary of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from September 2021 until June 2025. She received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. She completed her training in internal medicine at the University of Michigan and her infectious diseases training at the Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Wharton joined CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in 1986 and was assigned to the Tennessee Department of Health and Environment in Nashville, TN. She joined CDC's immunization program in 1992, and since that time has held a variety of positions. From 2006 to 2013 she served as Deputy Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and from 2013 to 2021 as Director, Immunization Services Division, NCIRD. She previously served as a member (2009-2015) and as chair (2012-2015) of WHO's Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety and as a member of FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (2006-2020). She retired from CDC in September 2025.