Chief State Epidemiologist

Dr. Varun Shetty is the Chief State Epidemiologist for the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS).  In this role, he provides leadership and expertise for the department on disease monitoring and prevention. Dr. Shetty leads the Office of the Chief State Epidemiologist which oversees health statistics and infectious disease epidemiology and he represents Texas on the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.

Dr. Shetty is a graduate of Union College in Schenectady, New York, with a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Political Science. He is an alumnus of the AmeriCorps national service program. He received an MBA in Healthcare Management from Union Graduate College (now Clarkson University), and an MS in Biomedical Sciences from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana, and completed his residency training in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. He was selected to serve as a chief resident for Pediatrics.

Dr. Shetty joined the CDC in 2019 where he was assigned to support DSHS, first as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer and then as a Career Epidemiology Field Officer (CEFO). He has advised on a number of Texas public health responses, including the E-cigarette, or vaping product, use associated lung injury (EVALI) epidemic, the Mpox outbreak, and the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also contributed to the state’s public health emergency preparedness and data analysis efforts.

Since October 2022, Dr. Shetty has acted as Chief State Epidemiologist for Texas.