Krutika Kuppalli, M.D.

Krutika Kuppalli, M.D., FIDSA, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and a member of its Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine. She holds a secondary appointment in the Peter O'Donnell School of Public Health. Her clinical expertise is in caring for critically ill patients with emerging infectious diseases and pandemic preparedness and response.

Originally from Palo Alto, California, Dr. Kuppalli holds dual bachelor's degrees in biochemistry and international relations from the University of California San Diego. She received her medical degree at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and completed internal medicine residency and infectious diseases fellowship training at Emory University in Atlanta, and a postdoctoral fellowship in global public health at UC San Diego. She also was an Emerging Leader in Biosecurity Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Awarded the NIH Fogarty International Clinical Research Fellowship, she conducted research in Southern India that focused on the progression of emerging infections in persons living with HIV and the optimization of their care. She also served as Medical Director of a large Ebola Treatment Unit in Sierra Leone during the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak, helping lead the development and implementation of pandemic preparedness and response activities in resource-limited settings and consulting on the development of therapeutics and monitoring of adverse vaccine events for emerging pathogens.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Kuppalli played a key role in operationalizing a field hospital to support San Francisco’s pandemic response. She was also the Medical Lead for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout at her institution, where she organized vaccine education events for staff and patients, targeting underserved communities. As a recognized expert in her field, she was invited to testify before the U.S. Congress Financial Services Committee Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, and highlighted how digital technologies could improve exposure notification and contact tracing efforts. Ahead of the 2020 U.S. election, she provided expert testimony before the House Select Subcommittee, presenting guidelines she co-developed for "Healthy In-person Voting."

In August 2021, Dr. Kuppalli joined the World Health Organization (WHO) Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, as a medical officer for the COVID-19 pandemic response, where she was an integral part of the global Incident Management Support Team (IMST). She contributed to the development of educational resources, supported the clinical characterization and management working group for COVID-19, and played a key role in creating the COVID-19 clinical management and therapeutics guidelines. She also served as the technical focal point for the Post COVID-19 Condition (PCC) Steering Committee, where she led the development of the case definition for PCC in children and adolescents. Additionally, she was a member of the secretariat for the Scientific Advisory Group on the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) and participated in the WHO Steering Committee responsible for developing the Ebola Virus Disease Therapeutics Guidelines.

She was a core member of the WHO IMST for mpox from the onset of the multicountry outbreak in May 2022 until April 2024, and played a key role in developing educational resources and technical documents, including normative guidance for surveillance, public health, and diagnostics. She also was part of the writing team for the clinical management and infection prevention and control guidelines. During the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), she contributed to the proceedings of the International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee and assisted in drafting temporary recommendations issued by the Director General, providing clinical input, supporting missions to Nigeria and the Central African Republic, and helping launch the global mpox partnership which aimed to identify knowledge gaps and foster collaboration among stakeholders.

Dr. Kuppalli is recognized as a scientific expert in emerging pathogens, global health, biosecurity and outbreak response. She has advised governments at the local, national, and global level and held several leadership roles. She is the past chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s (IDSA) Global Health Committee and served as part of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) Trainee Committee. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Kuppalli was recognized by NPR Source of The Week as an expert to follow and named to Elemental’s 50 Experts to Trust in a Pandemic. She has been a frequent contributor to numerous domestic and international media outlets including the The New York Times, NPR, Reuters, The Washington Post, Vox, Stat News, The San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes, NBC Bay Area, and BBC News.

Dr. Kuppalli's research interests include global public health, global health security, clinical characterization and optimization care for emerging infectious diseases, pandemic preparedness and response, and the use of medicinal countermeasures in outbreak response.

Dr. Kuppalli is an active member of several professional organizations, including the American Medical Association and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. She is also an editorial board member of Helio Primary Care, Infectious Diseases News, and PLOS Global Public Health, of which she serves as its Global Health Security section editor.

Currently, Dr. Kuppalli is a member of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme Clinical Expert Network and serves as a subject matter expert to the CEPI-funded SPEAC project, which evaluates the safety of vaccines used during outbreak response and most recently involved with mpox and Marburg. 

Throughout her career, Dr. Kuppalli has worked across the globe in settings such as Sierra Leone, India, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Haiti, focusing on health systems to strengthen and improve care for emerging infections. She has advised governments and public health agencies on outbreak response, pandemic preparedness, and healthcare policy.