Dr. Donna Petersen is Dean, College of Public Health, and Senior Associate Vice President, USF Health, at the University of South Florida. She earned her masters and doctoral degrees from The Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in maternal and child health and held leadership positions at the Minnesota Department of Health, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham before joining USF. She is past president of the National Board of Public Health Examiners, past Chair of the Council on Education for Public Health, and immediate-past Chair of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health. Locally she serves on the Hillsborough County Health Care Plan Advisory Board and the Board of Directors of the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg. Since March 2020 she has chaired the University of South Florida COVID-19 Task Force.