Neil Vora, MD, is the Executive Director of the Preventing Pandemics at the Source Coalition (PPATS) and Orchestrator-in-Residence at Integral. He served for nearly a decade with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer and a Commander in the US Public Health Service (USPHS). Neil deployed for CDC to Liberia in 2014 and to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2019 to assist in the responses to the two largest Ebola outbreaks ever. He also led the investigation of a newly discovered smallpox-like virus in the country of Georgia in 2013. In 2020, Neil was asked by New York City (NYC) Mayor Bill de Blasio to develop and lead NYC’s COVID-19 contact tracing program, through which he oversaw a team of over 3,000 staff that traced more than 700,000 affected New Yorkers. From 2021-2025, he served as a technical fellow and Senior Advisor for One Health at Conservation International. He is currently a Co-Chair of the Lancet/PPATS Commission on Prevention of Viral Spillover, an Editor at CDC’s Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, a Presidential Leadership Scholar, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Health Council. He still sees patients in a public tuberculosis clinic in New York City. He has published more than 100 articles in leading outlets such as the New York Times, Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, and The Lancet. In 2023, he delivered a TED talk on how stopping deforestation is a critical intervention for preventing pandemics and mitigating climate change. For his work, he has received numerous accolades including the USPHS Physician Researcher of the Year Award, USPHS Meritorious Service Medal, CDC James H. Steele Veterinary Public Health Award, CDC Donald C. Mackel Memorial Award, and CDC Alexander D. Langmuir Prize Manuscript Award. In 2025, he was named to the TIME100 Next list of “World’s Most Influential Rising Stars”. He completed medical school at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 2009 and his Internal Medicine training at Columbia University in 2012. Outside of work, Neil loves to train in Brazilian jiu jitsu.