Marcus Plescia, MD, MPH

Marcus Plescia, MD, MPH, is the chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). He provides medical leadership and expertise across the agency and has served as ASTHO’s principal spokesperson during the COVID-19 pandemic. He leads the ASTHO Atlanta office and serves as the association’s primary liaison to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Plescia has served in public health leadership roles at the local, state, and federal level in North Carolina and at CDC. In these roles, he has successfully led efforts to enact systemic public health interventions, including expanded cancer screening coverage, prescription drug and disease reporting requirements, revised clinical guidelines, and state and local tobacco policy. He has played a prominent role in nationwide efforts to transform public health practice to a more population-based, strategic framework, and has led the implementation of the CDC's national colorectal cancer screening program based on this approach.

Plescia received his medical degree, Master of Public Health, and Bachelor of Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He trained in Family Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center Residency Program in Social Medicine in the Bronx, New York. He is Board Certified in Family Medicine and has practiced in a variety of settings serving homeless, urban poor, rural, and other underserved populations. He has published extensively in the public health and family medicine literature.