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Tracy Sides, PhD, MPH

Dr. Sides is a research associate at CIDRAP, coordinating an internal program development team focused on responding to and cultivating funding opportunities with various agencies and organizations. Her current research focus is on food safety and health measures along the farm-to-fork continuum in food systems. Dr. Sides' previous roles at CIDRAP include online and in-person training development with the Minnesota Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (MCEIRS) and serving as the Deputy Program Director for BioWatch. In this capacity, she developed national guidance for a bioterrorism early detection system and provided leadership and facilitation to groups of experts from federal, state, and local government agencies; national laboratories; and transportation facilities.

She has a broad background working as an epidemiologist in public, private, and academic settings. She conducted research and provided analytical support in the Division of Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota and served as an epidemiologic training consultant to the law firm of Robins, Kaplan, Miller and Ciresi, as well as the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Sides has training and experience in microbiology and molecular epidemiology, particularly in relation to public health applications. In 2005 she was selected to evaluate the World Health Organization's role and activities in relation to global monitoring and surveillance of HIV drug resistance.

Prior to joining CIDRAP, Dr. Sides was a senior infectious disease epidemiologist at the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), where she coordinated Minnesota's HIV Disease Surveillance System and initiated HIV subtype and drug-resistance surveillance. She collaborated widely both within and outside of MDH in such areas as disease surveillance methods, prevention and care services planning, data security, refugee and immigrant health, molecular epidemiology, and emergency preparedness.