President Donald Trump on Thursday selected Erica Schwartz, former deputy surgeon general and medical doctor, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he announced on Truth Social.
Schwartz, who will require Senate confirmation, was deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first term and is a retired rear admiral in the U.S.
Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a uniformed service focused on health issues.
CDC has been without a permanent leader for eight months.
National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya has been serving as interim director since February.
“She is a STAR!” Trump said of Schwartz on Truth Social.
Schwartz has a traditional medical background, receiving a Doctor of Medicine degree from Brown University School of Medicine in 1998.
She spent 24 years in uniformed service, including time in the U.S.
Coast Guard and the Navy, where she ran immunization clinics.
After leaving her deputy surgeon general post, she joined the board of directors for Butterfly Network, a digital health company.
The decision comes after a turbulent year for the CDC over its decisions on vaccine policy and high-level personnel shakeups.
Susan Monarez, the last CDC director, was fired in August after disagreements with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.
Monarez said she was removed from....
