Mark Edward Keim

Mark Edward Keim (born March 6, 1959) is an emergency medicine physician, a disaster medicine specialist and a public health scientist who specializes in health-related aspects of disasters.
Keim is the Associate Director for Science for the Office for Environmental Health Emergencies (OEHE) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He also serves as adjunct faculty at Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health and guest faculty at Harvard Medical School, Department of Emergency Medicine.
In 2006, he was appointed as a member of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Subcommittee for Disaster Reduction. He served as a review editor for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Special Report on managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation (SREX) from 2009 to 2011.
Early life
Keim was born in Canton, Illinois in 1959. He graduated with honors from Vienna High School in 1977. He married his wife Kelly in 1980. Two years later on May 29, 1982 his home was completely destroyed by an F-4 tornado. He and his family were among over 1000 people rendered homeless by the Marion, Illinois tornado outbreak.() Keim returned to college in 1985 and received his B.S. in Physiology from Southern Illinois University in 1987. He received his M.D. from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in 1991. In 1995, he completed a residency in emergency medicine at Albany Medical College, where he served as chief resident, 1994-95. In 1997, Keim then completed a two-year fellowship in disaster medicine at Emory University School of Medicine.
Career
Emory University Disaster Medicine Fellowship
During his term as a Disaster Medicine Fellow at Emory University, Keim served as a medical officer for the Georgia ). As a member of the Georgia DMAT he responded to provide emergency medical care in St. Thomas, VI for victims of Hurricane Marilyn in 1995 that left over 11,000 people homeless. In 1996, Keim served as an emergency medical advisor for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Olympic Science & Technology Advisory Council in Atlanta, Georgia. He also served as an a an attending emergency physician at Emory University Crawford Long Hospital in downtown Atlanta during emergency medical response to the bombing of Olympic Centennial Park, on July 27, 1996. At the request of the US Public Health Service (USPHS) Regional Health Administrator, Keim authored a report calling for the forward deployment of a USPHS pharmaceutical cache in preparation for the 1996 Summer Olympics that included medications for treatment of chemical, biological and radiological casualties. This concept would later develop into the multi-billion dollar Strategic National Stockpile, the United States' national repository of antibiotics, vaccines, chemical antidotes, antitoxins and other critical medical equipment and supplies. During that same time, he authored the first-ever study of injuries among Olympic athletes and co-authored the first description of public health issues related to the Olympic Games. Nine months later Keim was appointed to serve as the Chief Medical Officer for the National Disaster Medical System response to the Red River Floods in Grand Forks, North Dakota that caused the evacuation of over 50,000 people in April 1997.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Keim began his career at the in 1998. In August of that year, he published one of the first scientific articles that offered guidance for managing letter-based anthrax exposures, (notably 3 years before the 2001 anthrax attacks). In September 1998, Keim was selected to serve an Expert Appointment on behalf of the Surgeon General of the United States, to perform an emergency health assessment in response to the United States embassy terrorist bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. The attacks were linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, brought Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to the attention of the American public for the first time. He would later oversee a project for [Strengthening Emergency Medical Preparedness in Tanzania during 1999-2000.
In December 2000, CDC NCEH awarded Dr. Keim the Director’s Award for Superior Mission Response for service as medical expert for a US inter-agency team charged with assessing the public health impact and needs of over 1.5 million people displaced during Vietnam’s worst flood in a century and for leading The U.S. inter-agency environmental health assessment after flash floods and landslides in Vargas State of Venezuela killed over 30,000 people.
In 2001, he founded the Pacific Emergency Health Initiative (PEHI) focusing on reducing the risk of public health emergencies among small island developing states and orchestrated the development of the world’s first regional strategy for disaster risk management for health. This strategy was presented at the 2nd World Conference on Disaster Reduction. The Hyogo Framework for Action: 2005-2015 also grew out of this same conference. In 2002, Dr. Keim was selected as CDC NCEH Employee of the Month. He was also named as one of the Annals of Emergency Medicine Top Consultants for 2001 and 2002.

In 2002, he received the DHHS Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service for his leadership as the Incident co-manager the 9/11 World Trade Center attack and for the anthrax letter emergencies. In 2005, He received the CDC NCEH Special Act or Service Award. In 2006, he was awarded a second DHHS Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service for his leadership as CDC’s co-incident manager for Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Wilma and Hurricane Rita.

In 2005 Keim was awarded his second CDC National Center for Environmental Health Director’s Award for Superior Mission Response for his leadership including work Indonesia tsunami response: leading multinational teams aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln to perform rapid needs assessments along the Sumatra coast of Indonesia and in the city of Banda Aceh after the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami.
In 2007, Keim was again honored with a second award of the CDC NCEH Special Act of Service Award for Superior Mission Response for his work in assessing the Micronesia Sea level disaster (the first of its kind); and for managing the international CDC response to investigate and correctly identify an outbreak of mass poisonings in Panama associated with contaminated cough syrup. In 2007, he also selected as the CDC NCEH Employee of the Month for a second time.
In 2010, Dr. Keim was selected to receive the CDC NCEH/ATSDR Award for Excellence in Emergency Response for his work in support of CDC efforts in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
In 2010, he was honored by his medical school alma mater, the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, when he was named as on the top 40 Alumni in the 40 year history of the school. In 2011, he also received the CDC NCEH/ATSDR Award “For Exceptional Performance in Emergency Response and Preparedness during the 2010 Fukishima Nuclear and Tsunami Disaster. In December 2011, his undergraduate alma mater Southern Illinois University, honored Dr. Keim as a Distinguished Alumni.

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