President Trump said Thursday he will nominate Dr. Erica Schwartz to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC has been without a permanent director since Susan Monarez was ousted last year after clashing with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy.
Schwartz served as deputy surgeon general, a nonpolitical role, in the first Trump administration. She has a medical degree from Brown University, as well as a master's degree in public health and a law degree.
The White House was seeking a nominee who would minimize controversy, people familiar with the matter said. Schwartz will need to be confirmed by the Senate. The White House has told Kennedy to avoid speaking about vaccines ahead of the midterms, other people familiar with the matter said -- since his policy changes have not been popular, according to polls.
"These Highly Respected Doctors of Medicine have the knowledge, experience, and TOP degrees to restore the GOLD STANDARD OF SCIENCE at the CDC," Trump said on Truth Social.
Trump said he was also appointing three others to a team to help lead the CDC, including health executive Sean Slovenski; Commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services Dr. Jennifer Shuford; and Food and Drug Administration Principal Deputy Commissioner Dr. Sara Brenner.
Kennedy voiced his support for the new team earlier Thursday in a hearing before a House subcommittee. "The team has been leaked, and it's gotten applause from both Republicans and Democrats," Kennedy said. "I think this new team is really going to be able to revolutionize CDC and get it back on track."
Schwartz helped lead the first Trump administration's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. "When I was a military physician, my job was all about readiness. It was all about public health prevention, vaccines, early detection," Schwartz said in a recent video posted to Instagram to mark National Public Health Week. "If we get that right, we change lives before illness ever begins."
The team is likely to face scrutiny from vaccine skeptics in Kennedy's movement. "Trump's pick to head the CDC, Erica Schwartz, would likely be a disaster," Kennedy ally and attorney Aaron Siri said on X Thursday. "Her prior promotion, let alone mandates, of nearly a dozen different vaccines leave little hope she will objectively oversee CDC's vaccine program."
Other Kennedy supporters praised Schwartz.
"I had the honor of working with Dr. Schwartz in her role as the Deputy Surgeon General and I can't say enough good things about her," consultant and former Trump administration health official David Mansdoerfer said on X. "A perfect bridge between MAHA and the Public Health Community."
Federal health officials, including Kennedy, were interviewing candidates in recent weeks, the Journal previously reported. Other candidates considered included Ernie Fletcher, the former governor of Kentucky and a family-practice physician; Joseph Marine, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins who has criticized the CDC's handling of the pandemic; and Daniel Edney, Mississippi's state health officer and a proponent of vaccines.