President Trump nominated Erica Schwartz on Thursday to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tapping a former public health leader for a position that has been filled mostly on a part-time or interim basis during the second Trump administration.
Schwartz was deputy surgeon general during the first Trump administration and spent much of her career in health roles in the U.S. military.
She is a board certified doctor of preventive medicine. She received her medical degree from Brown University in 1998 and completed a Masters of Public Health degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 2000. She also has a law degree and was admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia.
Schwartz spent the bulk of her career in the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, serving in a variety of positions, including as the Coast Guard’s preventive medicine chief. She was also involved in the Trump administration’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
As a retired rear admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, Schwartz will “definitely understand the culture of CDC, of the employees that are [also] commissioned corps officers,” David Mansdoerfer, a former senior Department of Health and Human Services official in the first Trump administration, told STAT. Mansdoerfer, who worked with Schwartz while at HHS, praised her record, adding she worked alongside “a ton of the high-level people in the White House.”
“She’s a great pick,” he said.
That sentiment was echoed by her former boss, Jerome Adams, who was surgeon general during the first Trump administration. In a post on the social media platform X, Adams said he personally selected Schwartz to serve as his No. 2.
“A battle-tested leader with decades of distinguished public service — including as a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service and Coast Guard — she has the expertise, credibility, and integrity to lead the CDC effectively,” he said.
“If allowed to follow the science without political interference,” he wrote, “she’ll excel.”
That caveat was raised by a number of people when asked about Schwartz as a possible CDC director.
Debra Houry, who was the CDC’s chief medical officer until she resigned last August following the firing of previous director Susan Monarez, said that while it was good to see someone with experience responding to crises nominated to the position, Schwartz would still be answering to health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines and the CDC.
“We saw what happened with Susan. She couldn’t make staffing or policy decisions. What has changed?” Houry told STAT. “Kennedy hasn’t changed.”
Trump also announced the appointment of Sean Slovenski, former president of Walmart Health & Wellness, as CDC deputy director and chief operating officer, as well as Jennifer Shuford, Texas state health commissioner, as deputy director and chief medical officer. Sara Brenner, principal deputy commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration, will become senior counselor for public health to Kennedy.
It remains to be seen whether Schwartz can muster sufficient support in the Senate to be confirmed, but her background as a physician with federal service experience will likely be popular among lawmakers. She also has no discernible public record opposing vaccinations, which could smooth her journey through the confirmation process. Kennedy’s opposition to vaccines and his efforts to limit the number of vaccines recommended for all children have been a source of serious conflict between the health secretary and many senators.
The nomination comes at a delicate time for nominees for HHS leadership positions, a fact acknowledged by both GOP Senate staffers and administration officials. Some Senate Republicans seem unlikely to confirm Casey Means as surgeon general after she waffled on recommending vaccines. Means is also not a practicing physician, which some lawmakers questioned.
Schwartz’s nomination also comes amid an increasingly charged relationship between tenuous Washington alliances. The power of the Make America Healthy Again movement — the base behind Kennedy — has wavered this year. In anticipation of the midterms, the White House has pushed HHS to move away from politically divisive issues like vaccines, even as some MAHA advocates urge officials to reconsider. Instead, the administration wants to focus on issues that are more popular among voters, like food safety and drug pricing.
That has frustrated some of the MAHA base, who want Kennedy to continue to focus on vaccine safety. On Thursday, some members of this vocal cohort pushed back on the nominee. Aaron Siri, a vaccine injury lawyer and once Kennedy’s personal attorney, wrote on X that the choice was a “disaster.” Siri wrote critically of Schwartz’s involvement in the White House’s Covid response, saying “This agency does not need another cheerleader for industry; it needs a regulator over industry.”
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have been mulling the degree to which they’re willing to stand up to parts of Trump’s agenda.
If her nomination clears the Senate, Schwartz would be the agency’s second full-time director this term, following Monarez, who was fired last August after pushing back on vaccine-related demands from Kennedy. Monarez was CDC director for a mere four weeks, a period that encompassed a traumatizing shooting attack on the agency’s main campus.
Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, has been serving as the de facto acting CDC director since mid-February, when former acting director Jim O’Neill was removed as HHS deputy secretary. But Bhattacharya cannot use the title acting director, because of a provision of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act that limits how long an acting director can serve.
The administration’s first nominee, former Florida congressman Dave Weldon, saw his candidacy withdrawn on the day his Senate confirmation process was to begin, when it became apparent he did not have the votes to be confirmed.
The Senate’s health committee will play a key role in determining whether Schwartz’s nomination succeeds. It is chaired by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician and a staunch supporter of vaccination whose reluctant vote for Kennedy was critical to his confirmation.
