Alan Sim, who has served since 2020 as chief data officer in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, is stepping down from that position.
Sim announced his departure in a social media post. No word on where he may be going next, but the CDC official promised “more on the next chapter of my journey coming soon.”
Sim joined the CDC in December 2020, and before that held senior data-centric positions in the private sector supporting Federal government agencies. From 2017 to 2020, Sim was chief data scientist at Vista Defense Technologies, which did work for the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
Before that, he was chief of the data discovery and research branch and senior epidemiologist/informatician at CNF Technologies from 2009 to 2017.
Sim said his exit from the CDC comes with “mixed emotions” but plenty of accomplishments.
“As a public health practitioner, I’ve had the distinct fortune of two meaningful stints within the CDC community,” he said. “My first was in the late 90s and early 2000s, an era defined by concerns like bioterrorism, Anthrax, and SARS. Returning in 2020 as CDC’s Chief Data Officer during the worst pandemic in our nation’s history was both a significant challenge and a profound opportunity.”
“During my time here, we’ve achieved countless ‘firsts’: launching an enterprise data catalog, driving data modernization, and leveraging big data/cloud technology to scale our emergency responses,” Sim said.
“More recently, I’m particularly proud of our strategic and innovative efforts in applying AI and machine learning to improve public health outcomes,” he said.