Dr. Melinda Wharton currently serves as the Deputy Director for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.  During the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic Influenza Response she served as Acting Director for NCIRD, overseeing non-H1N1 immunization activities and staff and was responsible for the national leadership for immunization of children, adolescents, and adults.   Prior to that she served as Acting Director of the Immunization Safety Office (ISO), where she provided overall leadership for the office and help to guide ISO’s transition from CDC’s Office of the Director to the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Preparedness, Detection, and Control of Infectious Diseases. She has previously managed CDC programs in infant immunization and childhood vaccine-preventable diseases, served as Division Director for epidemiology and surveillance, and then as Deputy Director in the former National Immunization Program (NIP).  Since 2006 she has served as Deputy Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. She has worked extensively on issues related to vaccine policy, vaccine safety science, and public health response.

Dr. Wharton holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and an M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical Center, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and her infectious diseases fellowship at the Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, North Carolina. 

Dr. Wharton was commissioned as a CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in 1986 and was assigned to the Tennessee Department of Health and Environment in Nashville, TN. In 1989, she joined CDC as a medical epidemiologist in the Epidemiology Program Office. She joined the National Immunization Program in 1992, holding chief positions in the Infant Immunization Section, Surveillance, Investigations, and Research Branch, and the Child Vaccine Preventable Diseases Branch, Epidemiology and Surveillance Division, and serving as Director, Epidemiology and Surveillance Division. In January 2004 she became Acting Deputy Director of NIP.

Dr. Wharton has authored or co-authored more than 80 scientific journal articles, book chapters, and CDC publications, including MMWR articles.

Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE, FAAP, is a board certified, practicing pediatrician, author, speaker, and mother. After completing her MD and MBE (Master's in Bioethics) at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, she completed her residency at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Swanson is a general pediatrician interested in the intersection of media and medicine and its impact on the physician-patient relationship. She writes Seattle Mama Doc for Seattle Children’s Hospital, the first pediatrician-authored blog for a major children's hospital. Dr Swanson is an official spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). She sits on the Board of Advisors for Parents Magazine, the board for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, and the executive committee for the AAP Council on Communication and Media. She speaks nationally on physician use of social media and its role in advocacy. She is called on frequently by the media for her expertise in pediatric health and is active in sharing her perspectives on pediatric health issues via social media. Dr Swanson believes physicians have an obligation to share opinions online. Her objective is to illustrate how we can marry the tools of social media to those of traditional media to inform parents and caregivers, engage pediatricians, and decrease the divide that may exist between patients and their physicians. She believes that a growing community of online physicians can empower patients to make informed decisions founded in science. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SeattleMamaDoc.