Neetu Abad, Ph.D., M.A.

Neetu Abad is a seasoned leader who has implemented high-impact public health strategies in mental and behavioral health, vaccine-preventable diseases, and emergency response domestically and globally. In July 2025, she was named the first director of the Rosalynn Carter Mental Health and Caregiver Program following the merger between The Carter Center and the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers.

Abad previously led the Behavioral Health Coordinating Unit in the National Center for Injury Control and Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. In this role, Abad worked to elevate, advance, and coordinate the CDC’s activities to promote mental well-being and prevent mental distress, substance misuse, overdose, and suicide through a primary prevention approach. She also served as the CDC’s primary mental health subject matter expert and led the development of the CDC’s first mental health strategy and mental health data channel.

Abad first joined the CDC in 2011 as an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education HIV prevention in communities of color postdoctoral fellow in the Division of HIV Prevention, where she published a systematic review of behavioral interventions to reduce HIV transmission risk among female sex workers. In 2013, she joined the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention as a behavioral scientist conducting social and behavioral research and evaluation on determinants of sexual risk behavior.

During the CDC’s West Africa Ebola emergency response, she developed the first risk reduction counseling and semen testing program protocols for Ebola survivors. From 2016 through 2023, she served as senior subject matter expert and then team lead on the Demand for Immunization Team in the Global Immunization Division in the CDC’s Global Health Center. During the CDC’s COVID-19 Emergency Response, Abad served as co-lead of the CDC’s Vaccine Confidence and Demand Team in the CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, overseeing the CDC’s U.S. and global vaccine confidence research, program, and policy agenda. Her work focused on assessing and intervening on the behavioral and social drivers of low vaccine uptake.

Abad earned her doctorate and master’s degree in social psychology from the University of Missouri.