Senate Committee Begins Confirmation Hearings for CDC Director Nominee

Confirmation hearings began Wednesday for President Trump's nominee to head the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The nominee served as deputy Surgeon General during the first Trump administration and holds degrees in medicine, law and public health.

She is a board-certified preventive medicine physician with experience in the U.S. military and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

After receiving undergraduate and medical degrees from Brown University, the nominee served as a physician in the U.S. Navy. In 2005 she joined the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, where she later became the U.S. Coast Guard's head of preventive medicine and chief medical officer.

She wrote policies on smallpox and anthrax vaccination, communicable disease quarantines, and responses to HIV and influenza pandemics. She retired in 2021 as a rear admiral.

During the hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, the nominee stated that her responsibility as CDC director would be to provide public health guidance that is clear, honest and evidence based. Democratic Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware said she was concerned that qualified people had changed positions or quit.

Former CDC official Dr. Daniel Jernigan said he hoped the nominee would receive independence from the Secretary to support evidence-based decision making.

and Human Services Deputy

Secretary Jim O'Neill served as acting CDC director after the departure of the agency's last confirmed director. National Institutes of Health chief Jay Bhattacharya later stepped in as acting director. The agency has lost hundreds of employees to layoffs and resignations since January 2025. Officials have altered the pediatric immunization schedule and changed the CDC website during this period.