The job of director of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention carries immense duty for shaping well being insurance policies, responding to crises and sustaining belief in public well being establishments.
Because the Trump administration took workplace in January 2025, the place has been held on an interim foundation by Susan Monarez, whom Trump has now nominated to take the job completely after his first nominee, former Florida Congressman David Weldon, was withdrawn, partly over his anti-vaccine views.
Monarez, in distinction, is a revered scientist who endorses vaccines and has strong analysis expertise. Whereas she is new to the CDC, she is an achieved public servant, having labored in a number of different businesses over the course of her profession.
Monarez’s nomination comes at a time when the Division of Well being and Human Providers is within the midst of mass layoffs, and well being professionals – and lots of within the public – have misplaced confidence within the federal authorities’s dedication to supporting evidence-based public well being and medication.
After having already minimize practically 10% of the CDC’s staff earlier within the yr, the White Home laid off hundreds extra HHS staff on April 1, gutting the CDC’s workforce by greater than 24% in whole.
As a educating professor and public well being educator, I recognize the significance of evidence-based public well being follow and the CDC director’s function in advancing public well being science, illness surveillance and response and a number of different capabilities which might be important to public well being.
The CDC is crucial to selling and defending well being within the U.S. and overseas, and the following director will form its course in a difficult period.
A crucial time for public well being
Along with the huge overhaul of the nation’s public well being infrastructure, the U.S. additionally faces a multistate measles outbreak and rising considerations over avian flu. Cuts to each the workforce and federal applications are hobbling measles outbreak response efforts and threatening the nation’s potential to mitigate avian flu.
The Trump administration has additionally introduced in a number of people who’ve lengthy held anti-science views.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointment to go of the Division of Well being and Human Providers was extensively condemned by well being specialists, given his lack of credentials and historical past of spreading well being misinformation.
So the stakes are excessive for the CDC director, who will report on to Kennedy.
Two CDC employees – one who has been on the company for 25 years and the opposite for 10 – protest mass layoffs on April 1, 2025.
AP Photograph/Ben Grey
An abrupt pivot
Previous to his inauguration, Trump had signaled he would nominate Weldon, a doctor who has promoted anti-vaccine theories.
However in March, Trump withdrew Weldon’s nomination lower than an hour earlier than his affirmation listening to was set to start, after a number of Republicans in Congress relayed that they’d not help his appointment.
As an alternative, Trump tapped Monarez for the highest spot.
The function of a CDC director
The CDC depends on its director to supply scientific management, form coverage responses and information the company’s intensive workforce in addressing rising well being threats.
Previous to January, the CDC director was appointed immediately by the president. The place didn’t require Senate affirmation, in contrast to the opposite HHS director positions. The choice was primarily an govt choice, though it was typically influenced by political, public well being and scientific concerns. However as of Jan. 20, modifications permitted within the 2022 omnibus price range require Senate affirmation for incoming CDC administrators.
Previously, the appointed particular person was sometimes a extremely revered determine in public well being, epidemiology or infectious illness, with expertise main giant organizations, shaping coverage and responding to public well being emergencies. Public well being coverage specialists anticipate that requiring Senate affirmation will improve the esteem related to the place and lend weight to the one that in the end steps into the function. But, some have expressed concern that the place may turn out to be more and more politicized.
Who’s Susan Monarez?
Monarez holds a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology. She has been serving as appearing director of the CDC since being appointed to the interim place by Donald Trump on Jan. 24.
Previous to entering into this function, she had been serving as deputy director for the Superior Analysis Tasks Company for Well being, or ARPA-H, since January 2023, a more moderen initiative established in 2022 by means of a US$1 billion appropriation from Congress to advance biomedical analysis.
Monarez has strong analysis expertise, in addition to administrative and management bona fides throughout the federal authorities. Previously, she has explored synthetic intelligence and machine studying for inhabitants well being. Her analysis has examined the intersection between expertise and well being and antimicrobial resistance, and she or he has led initiatives to broaden entry to behavioral and psychological well being care, cut back well being disparities in maternal well being, quell the opioid epidemic and enhance biodefense and pandemic preparedness.
Monarez has not but laid out her plans, however she’s going to little doubt have a difficult function, balancing the pursuits of public well being with political pressures.
Reactions to her nomination
Reactions to Monarez’s nomination amongst well being professionals have been principally optimistic. As an illustration, Georges Benjamin, govt director of the American Public Well being Affiliation, remarked that he appreciates that she is an energetic researcher who respects science.
However some have advocated for her to take a extra energetic function in defending public well being from political assaults.
In her interim place, Monarez has not resisted Trump’s govt orders, even these which might be extensively seen by different well being professionals as dangerous to public well being.
Since taking workplace, the present Trump administration has issued directives to take away necessary health-related information from authorities web sites and has discouraged using sure phrases in federally funded analysis.
Monarez has not pushed again on these directives, despite the fact that a few of her personal analysis contains key phrases that might now be flagged within the present system, like “health equity”, and that well being leaders expressed considerations in a letter despatched to Monarez in January.
One of many duties of Susan Monarez, the nominee to guide the CDC, is to speak crucial well being data to the general public.
NIH/HHS/Public area
CDC workers have stated that Monarez has not been seen as appearing director. As of early April, she has not attended any all-hands conferences since she joined the CDC in January, nor has she held the advisory committee to the director assembly that’s sometimes held each February. One company higher-up described her as a “nonentity” in her function thus far. Monarez has additionally reportedly been concerned in choices to drastically minimize the CDC workforce.
Whereas some have commented on the truth that she is the primary nonphysician to go the company in many years, that will really be a bonus. The CDC’s major capabilities are in scientific analysis and making use of that analysis to enhance public well being. Doctoral scientists obtain considerably extra coaching in conducting analysis than medical medical doctors, whose coaching rightly prioritizes scientific follow, with many medical faculties offering no coaching in analysis in any respect. Monarez’s {qualifications} are well-aligned with the necessities of the director function.
A time of change
The CDC was based at a time of nice change, within the aftermath of World Battle II.
Now, in 2025, the U.S. is once more at a time of change, with the appearance of highly effective applied sciences that can have an effect on public well being in nonetheless unforeseeable methods. New and rising infectious illnesses, like measles, COVID-19 and Ebola, are sparking outbreaks that may unfold rapidly in population-dense cities.
A shifting well being data ecosystem can unfold well being misinformation and disinformation quickly. Political ideologies more and more devalue well being and science.
All these components pose actual threats to well being within the U.S. and globally.
The following CDC director will undoubtedly play a key function in how these modifications play out, each at residence and overseas.
This story is a part of a collection of profiles of Cupboard and high-level administration positions.
