Professional Profile
Lew Radonovich is a Contributing Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. He joined the Center after retiring from his position at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the Deputy Director of the Respiratory Health Division in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
Dr. Radonovich has approximately 30 years of clinical, research, and administrative experience focused primarily on respiratory health. In the Respiratory Health Division at NIOSH, he helped lead efforts to reduce the burden and impact of work-related respiratory health conditions utilizing interdisciplinary research and service teams that investigated occupational hazards, including airborne dusts, disinfecting agents, and aerosol-generating procedures. He also served at the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory at NIOSH as a Senior Physician Scientist and Chief of Research, leading laboratory and clinical studies of respiratory protective devices and other personal protective equipment. One of his primary interests at NIOSH was translation of medical science to practice. Additionally, he worked at Blueprint Biosecurity as a Senior Advisor providing guidance about clinical science.
Previously, he was the Director of the National Center for Occupational Health and Infection Control in the Veterans Health Administration where he oversaw scientific research, operational guidance, and practice recommendations at the intersection of occupational safety and airborne infectious disease transmission. Principal areas of study included effectiveness of respiratory protective devices, implementation of engineering infection controls, and stockpiling of personal protective equipment for epidemics and pandemics.
Dr. Radonovich is a physician scientist with a background in internal medicine, clinical pharmacology, and clinical investigation. He was co-principal investigator of the Respiratory Protection Effectiveness Clinical Trial (ResPECT), a multi-site, cluster randomized clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of disposable respirators to surgical masks to protect healthcare workers from transmission of influenza virus and other respiratory viruses. He co-led Better Respiratory Equipment using Advanced Technologies for Healthcare Employees (Project BREATHE), a public-private partnership between U.S. federal agencies and U.S.-based respirator manufacturers.
In addition to his research and clinical activities, Dr. Radonovich has served in a wide range of governmental leadership roles during public health emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the H1N1 influenza pandemic. He has numerous peer-reviewed publications, has spoken frequently and scientific meetings, and has previously held academic appointments at the University of Florida, the University of Pittsburgh, and Johns Hopkins University.
