I Am CDC – Sharon McAleer

I’ve been at CDC since May of 2000. I always felt my path to CDC was accidental, but over the years, I’ve come to realize, it’s perfect for me. I grew up in Ireland and was a bit of a sports nut…. big into Gaelic football, running, cycling, and swimming-I still love that stuff!

When I was a student at Queens University in Belfast, I never imagined that I would end up working for one of the world’s leading health organizations. My move to America started with a scholarship President Bill Clinton set up in 1996. It was after that year of study that I knew I wanted to immigrate to the United States.

I’m a Health Communications Specialist in the Digital Media Branch. Every day, I get to work on a variety of projects, including mobile apps, such as Solve the Outbreak and CDC’s Health IQ Skill. I also work on CDC’s Web Content Management System, which pushes content to the CDC website.

I learn from every project I work on and I work with a great team of people. I love my job! My dad was a smoker and I was surrounded by secondhand smoke before secondhand smoke became a big deal. Every year, I would send him smoking factsheets in the mail. In 2005, my dad quit. I’d like to say it was because of me, but he stopped after a life-threatening emergency. I’m proud he’s been tobacco free for 15 years; quitting smoking saved his life. I’m Sharon McAleer and I am CDC!

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