The Trump Administration has selected current Acting Director and Principal Deputy Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Susan Monarez, Ph.D. as its nominee for the next Director of the agency. She has been the effective leader of CDC since assuming office on January 23, 2025, since which time the agency has experienced a communications freeze and mass layoffs handed down from the administration. 

Dr. Monarez holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

On his Truth Social platform, President Trump said “Dr. Monarez brings decades of experience championing Innovation, Transparency, and strong Public Health Systems… Dr. Monarez understands the importance of protecting our children, our communities, and our future. Americans have lost confidence in the CDC due to political bias and disastrous mismanagement.” He stated that Dr. Monarez would work closely with Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The nomination of Dr. Monarez follows the White House’s withdrawal of previous nominee for CDC Director Dave Weldon, M.D., due to concerns about not being able to secure the required votes to approve his appointment in a Senate confirmation.

According to CDC’s website, Dr. Monarez most recently served as the Deputy Director of the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) since 2023, a funding agency for biomedical and health research. Prior to ARPA-H, Dr. Monarez held positions at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security overseeing research portfolios, as well as in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and on the National Security Council, leading efforts to enhance the nation's biomedical innovation capabilities, including combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR), expanding the use of wearables to promote patient health, ensuring personal health data privacy, and improving pandemic preparedness.

Per CDC, in her career, Dr. Monarez has headed initiatives focused on the ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to support improved health outcomes, novel approaches to addressing affordability and accessibility in healthcare, expanding access to behavioral and mental health interventions, ending the opioid epidemic, addressing health disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality, and improving the country's organ donation and transplantation programs.