Dr. Rebecca Katz is a professor and the director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University. She has more than two decades of public health research experience, much of which has focused on global health security, public health preparedness, and health diplomacy. She has written on the urban governance of disease, the flow of infectious disease risk into and between urban areas and worked with municipal authorities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Matthew R. Boyce is a PhD candidate at Georgetown University and a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Global Health Science and Security. He serves as the head research associate for the Center’s work on urban pandemic preparedness, has advocated for improving health security and public health preparedness in urban environments, and worked with municipal authorities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to support the local response to the outbreak.