President Donald Trump on April 16 nominated a new director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Erica Schwartz will now face senators, who will decide whether to confirm her as the CDC’s leader.
Here’s what to know about Schwartz.
She Has Public Health Experience
Schwartz graduated from Brown University in 1998 with a medical degree. She later obtained a master’s degree in public health and a law degree.
She went on to serve as a Navy doctor and as the Coast Guard’s chief medical officer. During Trump’s first term, she served as the deputy surgeon general.
Schwartz was directly involved in the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, overseeing national preparedness and public health coordination efforts.
Dr. Brett Giroir, a health official at the time, said, “I worked closely with her during the toughest of times and have the highest opinion of her intellect, integrity, and commitment to service.”
Schwartz “led the country’s public health deployment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to her biography for the Butterfly Network, where she serves on the board of directors.
Earlier in her career, Schwartz developed policies on vaccination and communicable diseases, including guidance on responding to natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks.
She spent time as head of the Immunization Clinic at the Naval Medical Clinic in Maryland and as an epidemiologist at the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center in Virginia.
She Has Backing From RFK Jr.
Trump, while announcing the nomination, praised Schwartz as an “incredibly talented” individual who he said would help restore “the gold standard of science” at the CDC.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department oversees the CDC, backed the nomination.
Schwartz and others selected by Trump to lead the CDC are “an extraordinary team” that has “gotten applause from both Republicans and Democrats,” Kennedy told lawmakers on Capitol Hill on April 16. “I think this new team is really going to be able to revolutionize CDC and get it back on track and get it doing the job that it does better than any other health agency in the world.”
Trump’s first pick to lead the CDC, Dr. Dave Weldon, was withdrawn from consideration after some senators on the Senate Health Committee said they would not vote to advance his nomination to the full Senate. Weldon had said he supported vaccines but that he was concerned about the safety of some shots.
Susan Monarez, a microbiologist who held various government positions, later received Senate confirmation and became the CDC’s director. She lasted about one month before Trump fired her.
Monarez said that Kennedy tried pressuring her into accepting recommendations from the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, which Kennedy completely remade, without question. Kennedy said he merely asked Monarez to consider the panel’s recommendations.
Jim O’Neill, an investor who was the CDC’s acting director after Monarez’s termination, approved all recommendations from the committee, including rolling back the recommendation that all newborns receive a hepatitis B vaccine. A federal judge ruled in March that the committee had not been properly selected and blocked the vaccine schedule changes.
Support From Kennedy Critics
A number of Kennedy’s critics have come forward to support Schwartz, including Dr. Demetre Daskalakis.
He said that Schwartz showed “good leadership” during the pandemic and had a “proven track record with the commissioned corps, notably with pandemic preparedness.”
Daskalakis was director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases until he resigned in protest over Monarez’s firing. He has repeatedly criticized Kennedy and Trump over health-related moves, including the changes to vaccine recommendations.
Dr. Jerome Adams, the surgeon general during Trump’s first term and another Kennedy critic, said in an April 16 post on X that Schwartz “has the expertise, credibility, and integrity to lead the CDC effectively.”
“If allowed to follow the science without political interference, she’ll excel,” Adams wrote on X. “Cautiously optimistic but encouraged by this pick.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chairman of the Senate Health Committee, thanked Trump in a post on X for nominating a permanent CDC leader and said he looked forward to learning more about Schwartz and her vision for the agency.
Opposed by Some
Others said they opposed Schwartz’s nomination, such as Aaron Siri, a onetime lawyer for Kennedy who represents people who say, some with doctor notes, that they were injured by vaccines.
“Her long track record of directly issuing rights-crushing civilian and military vaccine mandates, including mandating injection of smallpox, anthrax, and flu vaccines into U.S. Forces, and discipling those that refused, reflects she lacks the basic ethics and morals to lead the CDC,” he wrote. “This agency does not need another cheerleader for industry; it needs a regulator over industry.”
While she was the Coast Guard’s chief medical officer, Schwartz signed orders on vaccine mandates.
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, founder of the Americans for Health Freedom group, disagreed, saying that there was not enough information at this time.
“What strikes me most about Schwartz for CDC director is how little we know about her,” Bowden wrote in a post on X. “She checks all the boxes and hasn’t left a paper trail.”
Reuters contributed to this report.