Robert James (RJ) Simonds, MD, EIS ’90, has had a career fueled by curiosity, and when that is your driving force, everything is an opportunity.
In what he calls “the main act” of his career, Dr. Simonds served as a branch chief and later deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Global AIDS Program. There, he helped shape the U.S. government’s global response to HIV, providing scientific expertise and guidance to a multi-country program to prevent HIV infection in children. This work quickly evolved into the largest public health effort against a single disease in history: President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Launched in 2003, the program has saved an estimated 26 million lives and enabled 7.8 million babies to be born HIV-free.
Science requires you to wonder what’s going on and ‘why is that?’” Dr. Simonds explained. "There’s a lot of room for finding out things that have not been found out before.
Dr. Simonds’ career has spanned decades of work across different fields and located all over the world. His first job was delivering newspapers in his Mt. Lebanon, PA, neighborhood at age 8. Through high school and university, he took on an assortment of local jobs, but at the time, his ambitions had little to do with science or medicine.
“I recall in high school thinking that I mostly just wanted to grow up to be a ‘cool grandpa,’” Dr. Simonds said.
Dr. Simonds graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975 with a degree in geography, a field that allowed him to study patterns, foreshadowing the work he would later pursue in epidemiology.
RJ Simonds and China CDC AIDS Program Director Dr. Shen Jie take an exercise break during meeting in Anhui Province, November 2004
Members of original PEPFAR Deputy Principals Group (L-R): Roxanne Rogers, RJ Simonds, Deborah Birx, Connie Carrino, Mark Dybul, Washington DC, October 2006
RJ Simonds with Thai staff and collaborators at a reunion of CDC’s perinatal HIV studies in Bangkok, November 2007
After college, Dr. Simonds followed his curiosity through an eclectic series of experiences, from driving a taxi in Pittsburgh to studying Chinese in Taiwan and training as an EEG technologist—a job that piqued his curiosity about working in the medical field. He subsequently attended the University of Hawaii John A Burns School of Medicine, where during his last year, he had an experience that he says shaped the rest of his career: a student epidemiology elective at CDC in Atlanta, GA. This exposed him to the field of epidemiology which he decided to pursue as a career.
“That elective sealed the case,” Dr. Simonds said. "I was involved in all aspects of a cryptosporidiosis outbreak investigation in a daycare center in Atlanta, and I liked it all.”
After this elective, Dr. Simonds completed a four-year pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh before returning to CDC through the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) training program. He was matched with the Pediatric and Family Studies Section of the Division of HIV/AIDS, which focused primarily on how to treat and prevent HIV in children.
“I was matched, not from any prior experience or interest in HIV, but mostly because I thought the people in the Division were neat. I felt comfortable with them, and they were comfortable with me,” Dr. Simonds said.
There, Dr. Simonds and his colleagues analyzed data and created guidelines on how to protect children with HIV from contracting pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), a potentially fatal infection among children with HIV. He was later asked to lead the Pediatric and Family Studies Section. During this time, new research emerged that zidovudine (AZT), the first antiretroviral medication used to prevent and treat HIV, reduced mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This was the first time it was proven that a medication could reduce HIV transmission, which had a massive impact on the response to the HIV epidemic. Using this research, Dr. Simonds’ team worked with others around the world to set policies, conduct research, and evaluate programs for the use of antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy.
RJ Simonds joins Dr. Marc Bulterys and Chinese colleagues on a field visit to HIV prevention activities, Yili, Xinjiang, China, May 2009
RJ Simonds joined by his father, wife, and 2 children at his first retirement from CDC and USPHS, Atlanta, July 2010
RJ Simonds giving remarks while representing CDC at HIV project meeting between US CDC and China CDC, Beijing, August 2016
For Dr. Simonds, epidemiology offered a way to understand why diseases affect people and populations differently and use those insights to protect children.
“I ended up in public health through a combination of wanting to help people and satisfying my curiosity by trying to answer the question, ‘Why are things the way they are?’” Dr. Simonds said.
Over the next twenty years, this drive led Dr. Simonds to work with policymakers in Washington and Atlanta to develop and strengthen HIV programs around the world. His work also took him overseas, including three years in Thailand, where he helped establish a government program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Over the following two decades, the country saw transmission rates fall from 25 percent to less than 2 percent. After returning to Atlanta, Dr. Simonds played a role in establishing CDC teams across Africa and Asia and coordinating efforts across U.S. government agencies to expand access to lifesaving HIV services through PEPFAR.
Throughout his professional life, Dr. Simonds felt driven by what he called “the human element” of the work.
“I realized that as a US government leader, my direct influence on the actual people who are at risk of disease was limited,” Dr. Simonds said. “But I could have a direct impact on the people I work with, and by providing a positive environment where people feel good about their work and are supported—that’s where I can make a difference.
RJ Simonds and China CDC Director George Gao enjoy a light moment at the Lantern Festival, Beijing, February 2019
RJ Simonds lectures to pediatric residents at Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, January 2025
RJ Simonds and his grandson discuss bridge engineering on a retirement field trip, Pennsylvania, June 2026
Dr. Simonds’ experience also shaped his decision to support the CDC Foundation.
"I believe in the mission. The CDC Foundation has a flexibility and experience to develop new partnerships, and I’ve seen very good things happen from it,” Dr. Simonds said. "It’s really important, institutionally, to bring in new people and organizations. Anything that we can do to support that is worthwhile.”
Dr. Simonds’ goal of becoming a “cool grandpa” has also become a reality. In a personal essay written for his grandchildren, he traces the unexpected path from his first newspaper route in 1963 to his retirement from CDC in 2021, a career shaped by curiosity, the people he met along the way and the opportunities he was given to make a difference.
Today, Dr. Simonds is helping create those same opportunities for future public health leaders. Through his support of the CDC Foundation, he is investing in the next generation of professionals who will ask the new questions, tackle emerging challenges and advance the science that protects communities around the world.
For Dr. Simonds, supporting the CDC Foundation is a way to ensure that curiosity, discovery and service continue to shape the future of public health, just as they shaped his own remarkable career.
Join Dr. Simonds in supporting the next generation of public health leaders through the Epidemic Intelligence Service Alumni Association (EISAA) Leading the Way Endowment. Learn more or make a gift today. If you would like more information about ways to support EISAA, please contact Diana Scalera at eisalumni@cdcfoundation.org or via phone at 470.802.6859.
