Tara Kirk Sell

Tara Kirk Sell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering and a Senior Associate at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She conducts research to develop a greater understanding of potentially large-scale health events such as disease outbreaks, bioterrorism, natural disasters, or radiological/nuclear events.

Dr. Sell holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2016), and MA and BA from Stanford University (2005). She serves as an Associate Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Health Security (formerly Biosecurity and Bioterrorism).

Her research focuses on improving public health policy and practice to reduce health impacts of disasters and terrorism. She works on qualitative and quantitative research analyses and uses this research to assist in the development of strategy and policy recommendations. Her primary research interests include biosecurity and biodefense, public health preparedness, emerging infectious disease, federal funding and budgeting, and nuclear preparedness policy and practice.

Dr. Sell's recent publications examine pandemic preparedness, social media misinformation during health crises, resilience modeling for disasters, and systems to protect public health workers from harassment. Her work spans interdisciplinary fields including health policy, national security, infectious disease, and bioterrorism.

• US Olympian and Silver Medalist, 4x100 Medley relay
• Former World and American Record Holder, 100m Breastroke

Dr. Sell's work on public health emergency response has informed policy recommendations and practical approaches to pandemic preparedness and biodefense. Her research on media coverage of Ebola outbreaks has provided insights into risk communication during health crises. She has developed analytical frameworks for understanding federal biodefense funding and has contributed to the development of the COPEWELL model for community resilience during disasters.