Sean Fitzgerald MPH, RBP, CBSP
Director of Research and Academic Safety at Hackensack Meridian Health
Sean Fitzgerald is currently the Network Biosafety Officer and the Director of Research and Academic Safety for Hackensack Meridian Health. He serves as the Chair of the IBC and IACUC. Prior to working at Hackensack Meridian Health, Sean served as Senior Biosafety Officer and Alternate Responsible Official at Tulane National Primate Research Center. He started his career at Harvard Medical School as a Drug and Vaccine Development Researcher, eventually transitioning to their Biosafety program managing Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health.
Title of Presentation/Workshop
Communicating Safety in an Outbreak
Presentation/Workshop Summary
Between 2014 and 2016, the largest Ebola virus outbreak since the 1970s occurred in West Africa. This particular outbreak created significant international concerns and wide spread health system impacts throughout the world. Global outbreaks create significant concerns in an ever more connected world. This was even more evident when Ebola popped back up again as a global health concern in 2022. These events, SARS, MERS and of course the SAR-CoV-2 Pandemic shined a bright light on the necessity of quick acting training and information dissemination in health care settings. In 2014, I helped execute this at Brigham and Women’s hospital. In following outbreaks, this has been a core function at my current position at Hackensack Meridian Health. I have developed many methods to try and dispel myths and fear in these scenarios, while at the same time ensure folks who could come into contact with these items are prepared and comfortable in the situations, they need to operate in. I look to share this process to ensure that folks in that find themselves in these situations have the tools to ensure they can tackle outbreak situations in a safe and effective manner for the good of all.