Infectious diseases are constantly emerging and reemerging worldwide, causing immense threats to the health of humans, animals, and plants. This is especially clear now as researchers tackle the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused more than 16 million human infections worldwide. To meet this challenge, Virginia Tech has created the Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens. The new center will be administratively established in the Fralin Life Science Institute and will include faculty participants from at least seven colleges and more than 25 departments on campus. The center will focus on local and state important issues in infectious diseases, such as microbial contamination in drinking water in Appalachian rural areas, Lyme disease, bat white-nose syndrome in Virginia, microbe-related food safety, COVID-19 prevention, etc. The center will develop science-based solutions for issues related to infectious diseases and educate graduate students to effectively communicate their research results to policymakers and the general public.