Rachael Piltch-Loeb: Building a Safer Future

It’s fitting that Rachael Piltch-Loeb, uses building a home as an analogy for combatting the pandemic. In addition to her career as a public health emergency preparedness and response expert, Rachael is an NCS Board Member and founding chair of the NextGen Network who clearly cares a lot about housing.  

“There’s no easy solution to the disinformation,” she shares. “But we need people to get vaccinated. It’s like building a house. Combating the pandemic requires a variety of tools. The vaccine is the absolute best tool that we have and the more people who use this tool, the faster we will get through this. The faster we’ll build. But you can’t build a house with just one tool. Until enough people are vaccinated, there are other tools we need to keep using like masks.” 

Throughout the pandemic, Rachael’s expertise has been cited by international sources including the BBC, the Atlantic, and Bloomberg News. Closer to home, NCS CEO Ann Shalof has benefitted from Rachael’s advice.   

“Throughout the past year and a half, we've all been navigating through uncharted waters,” said Shalof. “Rachael has generously shared her expertise and insights, particularly regarding how to encourage vaccination at our residences. We are extremely fortunate to have had her help and support during this difficult time."

Rachael Piltch-Loeb holds appointments at both the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health as a Preparedness Fellow and the NYU School of Global Public Health as an associate research scientist. She earned her PhD in public health from NYU, a MSPH from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, and BS from Georgetown University.