Laura Kwinn

Dr. Laura Kwinn serves as Branch Chief for Laboratory Biosecurity in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Kwinn manages the Federal Experts Security Advisory Panel, which provides technical advice to government programs that regulate the physical, cyber, and personnel security measures to protect pathogens in U.S. laboratories.  She is particularly interested in strategies to mitigate risks posed by “insider threat,” including empowering individuals to communicate concerns to law enforcement, employing personnel reliability measures, and exploring uses of novel technologies in the field.  She provides advice to various federal and non-federal policy boards and assists with policy outreach and communications efforts.

Dr. Kwinn began her career in policy as an ASM/AAAS Congressional Science Fellow on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA). Her issues portfolio included infectious disease research funding, emergency preparedness, and medical countermeasure development. 

Dr. Kwinn earned her Ph.D. in biology from the University of California, San Diego studying genetic regulation of virulence in Streptococcus pyogenes and her Bachelor’s degree in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a concentration in Science and Technology in Society.