Colten J. Strickland is the COVID-19 Epidemiology and Surveillance Manager for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.  He received his BS in Philosophy with a minor in Peace and Justice Studies from Utah Valley University in 2013, his MPH in Disaster Management from Tulane University in 2015, and his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Delaware in 2022.  Colten was the founding doctoral student of the Epidemiology program at the University of Delaware and first epidemiology student of the DRC.  During his program, Colten responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in his role as the lead COVID-19 Epidemiologist for the Delaware Division of Public Health from 2021-2022 and as a COVID-19 Epidemiologist for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health from 2020-2021.  Prior to the start of his program, Colten was a Public Health Associate (Class of 2016) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He was assigned to the Multnomah County Health Department in Portland, Oregon where he worked on childhood immunizations.  Colten has several years of experience working in governmental public health.  His research largely focuses on applied epidemiology, disaster epidemiology, and environmental health.  His dissertation is titled “A Review of COVID-19-Associated Mortality in the City of Philadelphia Over the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic.”  Colten is an active and supportive member of the LGBTQ+ community.