William Schaffner, MD is professor and chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He also is a consultant in communicable disease control at the Tennessee Department of Health. He is the co-PI of the Tennessee Emerging Infections Program (EIP), a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He is an infectious disease and public health specialist whose research interests include vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine implementation and evaluation, healthcare-associated infections and communicable disease control.