Vivian Singletary is the executive director of the Public Health Informatics Institute. In this role, she steers the work of PHII toward a world where every country has the capacity to access, use and share timely information to protect and improve the health of its people. Vivian is a recognized leading voice in the emergent and rapidly evolving field of public health informatics.
As a seasoned informatics expert and global public health leader, Vivian is uniquely positioned to drive and develop PHII’s global portfolio of innovative, cross-cutting projects in the larger public health context. Vivian brings modern systems thinking, innovation and creativity to her oversight of PHII. Her leadership is driven by an inherent desire to transform public health information systems to provide information for decision making in a timely manner to protect health.
Vivian’s experience combines nearly 30 years in systems development and public health. Earlier in her career, she served in leadership positions in supply chain management, process improvement and information systems implementation. She also acted as the director of informatics practice for the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) initiative, which addresses the causes of childhood mortality in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Vivian serves as vice president for Digital Bridge, a forum for healthcare experts, public health professionals and industry partners to discuss the challenges of information sharing and incubate solutions for a nationally consistent and sustainable approach to promoting bidirectional information exchange between healthcare and public health. She has been recognized as one of the Most Powerful Women in IT by Health Data Management and has been honored during Women’s History Month for her contributions toward ending the COVID-19 pandemic. Vivian also serves on the board of directors for the Public Health Foundation and on the Advisory Board for Georgia State’s Institute of Health Administration Program.
Vivian has contributed extensively to public health scholarship by authoring and co-authoring a range of academic publications and presentations. Most recently, Vivian advocated for an integrated approach to data modernization and offered guidance to health departments looking to use best practices of the software development field to increase their informatics capacity. She also recently co-authored a chapter on project management and informatics for the third edition of the seminal Public Health Informatics and Information Systems textbook, in addition to numerous other publications. Vivian also serves as adjunct faculty at both the University of North Carolina and Kent State University.
Vivian holds a master’s of business administration degree from Kennesaw State University and a juris master’s degree from Emory University School of Law, with a focus on global health. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.