Jennifer Shuford, MD, the CDC’s deputy director and chief medical officer, is the latest senior official to leave the agency. An infectious disease physician and former Texas health commissioner, she was hired in April as part of a leadership team meant to increase trust in the CDC, and her last day will be Nov. 12. Her exit is the latest in a run of changes that have put four different leaders in the agency’s top job since July 2025.
Here are eight moves that have reshaped its leadership since last summer:
- Aug. 27, 2025: CDC Director Susan Monarez, PhD, was fired after about a month in the role, having refused to resign. Four senior leaders, including Debra Houry, MD, and Demetre Daskalakis, MD, resigned after her exit, and the American Medical Association called the departures “highly alarming.”
- Aug. 28, 2025: HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, who had been named to that role in June, was named acting CDC director.
- Fall 2025: The CDC was roiled by job cuts that followed HHS’ March plan to terminate 2,400 CDC jobs, much of which was later rescinded, and August layoff notices to hundreds of employees in violence prevention and other offices. In October, hundreds of layoff notices were sent in error to staff working on the measles response, the MMWR and the Ebola response, which HHS then reversed. Ralph Abraham, MD, a former Louisiana surgeon general, was appointed principal deputy director in November.
- December 2025: Martin Kulldorff, PhD, stepped down as chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the panel that reviews vaccine data and issues recommendations on their use.
- February 2026: NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, became acting CDC director Feb. 18 while continuing to lead the NIH, as O’Neill and HHS General Counsel Mike Stuart left their roles. Dr. Abraham resigned Feb. 23 after three months, citing family obligations.
- April 2026: President Donald Trump nominated Erica Schwartz, MD, a retired rear admiral and former deputy surgeon general who had been a UnitedHealthcare executive, as director. He also named Sean Slovenski deputy director and chief operating officer and Dr. Shuford deputy director and chief medical officer. The CDC had been without a permanent director for all but 29 days since January 2025.
- August 2026: The Senate confirmed Dr. Schwartz Aug. 5 in a 51-44 vote, making her the agency’s first permanent director in nearly a year. At her confirmation hearing, she pledged to restore trust in public health institutions through “radical transparency” and said vaccines are safe and effective, though she did not directly answer some questions about HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine policy changes.
- Oct. 27, 2026: Dr. Shuford announced she is leaving after six months, with her last day set for Nov. 12. CDC scientists had been optimistic about her hiring because of her public health background and her willingness to speak out during Texas’ measles outbreak last year. Her departure comes amid scrutiny of the administration’s vaccine policy and delays in updating CDC measles data, and as measles cases reached 4,410 as of Oct. 15, nearly double the 2,289 reported for all of 2025.
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