Ms. DeBoer is deputy director of CIDRAP, with responsibility for strategic planning, program development, and program oversight. She is also director of the University of Minnesota's Academic Health Center (AHC) Office of Emergency Response. In the latter position she is responsible for developing and exercising plans and procedures related to public health emergencies on campus and preparing AHC personnel and students for serving in public health response roles in the event of a large-scale emergency event in Minnesota. She has established an Emergency Response Team; established a Medical Reserve Corps of over 900 volunteers from the University's Medical School, College of Pharmacy, School of Nursing, College of Veterinary Medicine, School of Public Health (SPH), and School of Dentistry; and served as Incident Commander during a 60-day mission in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. In addition, she works collaboratively with the local Metropolitan Hospital Compact and with the Center for Public Health Preparedness within the SPH. She has served as a consultant to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Homeland Security, and numerous state and local health departments on public health emergency preparedness, and teaches on this topic at the University of Minnesota.
Ms. DeBoer worked for the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) for 15 years before joining the University of Minnesota in June 2002. For most of her time at MDH, she held the position of section chief of the AIDS/STD Prevention Services Section with responsibility for a wide range of public health programs including disease surveillance, primary prevention, mass media, counseling and testing, partner notification, and noncompliant patient management. She also served as a frequent consultant to the CDC and Institute of Medicine on a wide variety of topics including the prevention of perinatal HIV infection, the prevention and control of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and HIV/AIDS policy development. She has served as principal investigator on multiple federal grants related to HIV, STDs, and viral hepatitis. As an officer of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors and a founding member and officer of the National Coalition of STD Directors, Ms. DeBoer influenced national policy and planning related to high-profile and often controversial issues. More recently, Ms. DeBoer held the position of director of the Office of Planning within the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Prevention and Control Division at MDH. In that capacity, she was responsible for the coordination of Minnesota's bioterrorism and public health emergency preparedness planning, including the successful development of Minnesota's initial application for $18 million in new federal bioterrorism funding.
