Maj. Gen. Erica G. Schwartz.
US Department of Health and Human Services
President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated Erica Schwartz to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ending a month-long effort to choose a permanent leader for the embattled health agency.
Mr. Schwartz, who must be confirmed by the Senate, will assume the role of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., overseeing a series of controversial health policy changes at the Department of Health and Human Services, including an overhaul of childhood vaccine recommendations.
Schwartz served as deputy surgeon general during the first Trump administration and played a key role in the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. She spent more than 20 years in uniform, including as a major general and chief medical officer in the Coast Guard.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharyya was the acting director of the CDC, but that position expired last month under federal law. The law, known as the Vacancies Act, limits the amount of time an acting official can serve in the place of a Senate-confirmed official to 210 days.
Late last month, 210 days have passed since the most recent CDC director, Dr. Susan Monales, was fired.
A sign outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Roybal Campus in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, on March 18, 2026.
Megan Varner | Reuters
She is so far the only person to serve as CDC director during President Trump’s second term, serving in the role for less than a month last summer. Monares said in Congressional testimony in September that he was fired after he refused Kennedy’s request to approve a vaccine recommendation he believed lacked scientific support.
It’s unclear how Schwartz’s views on vaccines and other key public health policies compare to Kennedy’s.
President Trump also announced Thursday that he has appointed Sean Slovenski as CDC deputy director and chief operating officer and Jennifer Shuford as CDC deputy director and chief medical officer. As head of the Texas Department of State Health Services, Shuford led the state’s response to last year’s massive measles outbreak and credited vaccinations and testing with helping to declare the measles end.
Schwartz’s appointment comes after a tumultuous few months for the agency, which has been rocked by leadership turmoil, low morale, significant staff turnover and changes to controversial U.S. vaccine policy. Ahead of the leadership’s departure last year, officials were shaken by the Aug. 8 attack on the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters by a gunman.
Last month, a judge blocked a major vaccine commission effort to overhaul U.S. immunization policy. This includes efforts to reduce the number of recommended childhood vaccinations from 17 to 11.
Trust in federal health agencies plummeted during President Kennedy’s tenure as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and confidence is declining across the political spectrum, according to a February poll by the health policy research group KFF.
