Virginia Caine

Virginia A. Caine, M.D. is director and chief medical officer of the Marion County Public Health Department. She is an associate professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine's Infectious Diseases Division. She served as the President for the American Public Health Association, the nation's oldest and largest public health organization. She received the BioCrossroads "2017 August M. Watanabe Life Sciences Champion of the Year" award.

Dr. Caine works tirelessly to promote and advance public health through innovative programs and unprecedented collaborations. With a national reputation for her work in public health through the Marion County Public Health Department, Dr. Caine was instrumental in setting up the first nationwide physician educational program regarding AIDS for the National Medical Association, which was later duplicated by the American Medical Association. She led a countywide process with local primary care agencies dealing with HIV/AIDS, to create the city's first integrated HIV health care delivery system. She was principal investigator for the Ryan White Title III funds, which established the first AIDS clinics in major city hospitals, ten community health centers, and resources for community-based HIV/AIDS prevention programs.

Indianapolis once had the distinction of having the highest Black infant mortality rate in the country. As co-director of the Indianapolis Healthy Babies Initiative, she was instrumental with community leaders in an effort that reduced the Black infant mortality rate to its lowest level ever in the history of Indianapolis by 46%.

She is chairman of the Board of Trustees for the National Medical Association and current chair of the Infectious Diseases Section. She is a board member for the CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Editorial Board. She is also chair of the Managed Emergency Surge for Healthcare (MESH) Coalition, a nonprofit public-private partnership addressing emergency preparedness in Marion County, Indiana, as well as the IU Simon Cancer Center Community Advisory Committee. She is a member of the National Biodefense Science Board, which provides expert advice and guidance to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the assistant secretary of preparedness. She is also co-chair for the Jump In for Healthy Kids Advisory Committee; founding member of the Indiana Health Information Exchange, and board member of the Indiana Latino Institute.

Dr. Caine earned her medical degree at New York Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. She completed her internal medicine residency at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. She received her Infectious Diseases fellowship training at the University of Washington in Seattle.