President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he was nominating Dr. Erica Schwartz to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Schwartz served as deputy U.S. surgeon general during Trump’s first term.
"Erica graduated from Brown University for College and Medical School, and served a distinguished career as a Doctor of Medicine in the United States Military, the Greatest and Most Powerful Force in the World, and then served as my Deputy Surgeon General during my First Term," Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding, "She is a STAR!"
Trump also announced his picks for three top health positions: Sean Slovenski, a health care industry executive, as the CDC's chief operating officer; Dr. Jennifer Shuford, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, as the agency's chief medical director; and Dr. Sara Brenner, principal deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, as senior counselor for public health for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"This is a team with great potential if political interference and the self interest of the secretary of health doesn’t hamper their ability to deliver for the health of the country," said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former head of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Daskalakis resigned from the agency in August in protest of Kennedy's firing of former CDC director Susan Monarez.
In a post on X, Kennedy thanked Trump for nominating Schwartz and said he looked forward "to working together to restore trust, accountability, and scientific integrity."
The CDC has been without a permanent director since August.
The Trump administration’s first pick, former Rep. Dave Weldon of Florida, was pulled in March 2025 after Republican senators signaled he wouldn’t be confirmed. Officials then turned to Monarez, a career scientist who had already been serving as acting director. She led the agency for just one month last summer before she was dismissed in August after clashing with Kennedy over vaccine policy.
Jim O’Neill then served as the agency’s acting director for several months. O’Neill signed off on a major overhaul of the childhood vaccination schedule in January that has since been blocked by a federal judge. He was replaced by National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya in February, who has since been overseeing the agency in an unusual dual role.
Schwartz spent more than 20 years in uniform across the U.S. Navy, Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the U.S. Coast Guard. She left as deputy surgeon general in 2021.
Schwartz, a physician, earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and a medical degree from Brown University. She also holds a master’s degree in public health from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and a law degree from the University of Maryland.
If confirmed, Schwartz would step into the role as the agency grapples with controversial policy changes under Kennedy.
Last month, a Massachusetts federal judge, in a lawsuit brought by the American Academy of Pediatrics and several other medical organizations, halted many of the vaccine policy changes made under Kennedy’s handpicked CDC vaccine advisory panel, also known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. That ruling also blocked the overhaul of the vaccination schedule. The agency has yet to appeal the ruling.
This month, Kennedy signed off on a new charter for ACIP — a move that was seen by health policy experts as a way to sidestep the judge’s ruling.
