THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2025 35 FOCUS ON GLOBAL HEALTH DIPLOMACY From Atlanta to Côte d’Ivoire How the CDC Protects Americans Overseas A Q&A with Audrey Knutson Luxenberg, CDC Côte d’Ivoire’s strategic information branch chief. Everyone knows AFSA’s six member agencies— State, USAID, FAS, FCS, APHIS, and USAGM— do much of their critical work at our embassies abroad. But not everyone knows that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has staff posted in 60 countries overseas working to safeguard Americans back at home. The Journal asked Audrey Knutson Luxenberg, a CDC expert currently assigned to Côte d’Ivoire, to tell us about the work she and her colleagues are doing to promote health and safety back home. Luxenberg is a public health adviser with the CDC, serving since October 2020 as the strategic information branch chief in the Division of Global HIV and TB for Côte d’Ivoire at U.S. Embassy Abidjan. Prior to joining CDC, Luxenberg worked as a program analyst at Peace Corps headquarters and served as a youth development volunteer with the Peace Corps in Morocco from 2009 to 2011. She would like to thank Erin Sauber-Schatz and Laura Emmanuel of the CDC’s Global Health program for their input as she worked to answer the questions below. Her answers have been lightly edited. Audrey Knutson Luxenberg is a public health adviser with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), serving since October 2020 as the strategic information branch chief in the Division of Global HIV and TB for CDC Côte d’Ivoire at U.S. Embassy Abidjan. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from 2009 to 2011.
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