CDC’s First Official Director in a Year Confirmed
August 10, 2026
Last week, the Senate confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) director.
Schwartz will be the first permanent CDC director since Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last year fired Trump’s second pick, Susan Monarez, after less than a month over a clash on vaccine policy. Schwartz was President Trump’s third pick for the post, and the position of CDC director has lacked a permanent leader for all but a month of Trump’s second term, Reuters reported.
Schwartz will head the agency through the worst U.S. measles resurgence in over three decades, an international Ebola outbreak, and the largest U.S. foodborne illness outbreak in recent years. Her confirmation also comes amid numerous surgeon general nominees and dozen of open director positions at the National Institutes of Health.
The 54-year-old is a board-certified preventive medicine physician who served as the U.S. Coast Guard’s chief medical officer from 2015 to 2019 and is a former deputy surgeon general, Reuters reported. She holds a medical degree from Brown University and a law degree from the University of Maryland.
She has a lengthy record of guiding vaccination programs and crises responses for the government, CNN reported.
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