Epidemiologist Neil Vora joins Mongabay’s board as it expands global reach and planetary health coverage

Detailed summary

Neil Vora has worked on Ebola outbreaks in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and ran New York City’s COVID-19 contact-tracing operation that traced more than…

Neil Vora has worked on Ebola outbreaks in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and ran New York City’s COVID-19 contact-tracing operation that traced more than 700,000 people. Now the physician and epidemiologist is joining Mongabay’s board of directors.

The Ebola deployments came during nearly a decade at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Over time, Vora turned his attention to the conditions that let diseases jump from animals to people in the first place: forest clearing, the wildlife trade, factory farming.

“Some researchers believe the West African Ebola epidemic began with an axe,” he said in a 2023 TED Talk, describing how farmers in rural Guinea cleared forest to survive. He argues that protecting forests and wildlife, along with better public health and animal husbandry, can lower the risk of the next pandemic.

He now leads the Preventing Pandemics at the Source Coalition, which pushes governments and funders to tackle the ecological causes of emerging diseases. Before that, he was a senior adviser on One Health at Conservation International.

“We’re honored to have Neil join Mongabay’s board of directors,” said Rhett Butler, Mongabay founder and CEO. “His knowledge and experience at the intersection of public health and conservation will be particularly valuable as Mongabay builds out its planetary health reporting.”

“I deeply appreciate how his work has connected deforestation and environmental degradation to human wellbeing,” Butler added. “And on a personal level, I feel a kinship with Neil as a fellow reptile and amphibian enthusiast.”

Vora’s career has included some of the most challenging public health emergencies of recent decades. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he led New York City’s contact-tracing program, overseeing more than 3,000 staff who traced more than 700,000 people affected by the virus.

He has authored more than 100 scientific publications and other articles, and was named to the TIME100 Next list in 2025.

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