David Sencer

David Judson Sencer (November 10, 1924 – May 2, 2011) was an American public health official who orchestrated the 1976 immunization program against swine flu. Between 1966 and 1977, he was the longest serving director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In this capacity, he convened a "Blue Ribbon Panel" to discuss the ethical concerns of Peter Buxtun regarding the ongoing Tuskegee Syphilis Study. From 1981 to 1986, he was Commissioner of Health of the City of New York.

Personal life and education Sencer was born on November 10, 1924, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His father, who specialized in furniture, died in Sencer's early life, so his mother, Helen Furness, raised him. After receiving scholarships to Cranbrook School and Wesleyan University, he left Wesleyan before graduating and enlisting in the Navy. Subsequently, the Navy "sent him to medical school at the University of Mississippi. He completed his medical degree at the University of Michigan."

In 1951, Sencer married Jane Blood Sencer, with whom he had three children: Susan, a pediatric oncologist; Ann, an oncology nurse practitioner; and Stephen, chief legal officer for Emory University.

That year, Legionnaires' disease, then unidentified, killed 29 attendees of a Philadelphia American Legion conference. Sencer sent 20 epidemiologists there to investigate, and months later they attributed the disease to a type of bacteria in the air-conditioning system in the hotel where the conference was held. though it took until May 1977 to replace Sencer with William H. Foege.

Later career After a short stint in the private sector as Senior VP, Medicine at Becton, Dickinson & Co., Sencer, in 1982, during the development of the AIDS epidemic in New York City, rejoined the public sector as the health commissioner of the city,#tag:ref|According to the Associated Press, being health commissioner of NYC was "considered one of the top jobs in U.S. public health". on May 2, 2011, at the age of 86, in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.

He is the namesake of the David J. Sencer CDC Museum.

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