Dr. Erica Schwartz confirmed as first Black woman to lead the CDC
TheGrio...
The Senate approved the physician and former deputy surgeon general to lead the nation’s top public health agency.
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), giving the nation’s leading public health agency its first permanent leader in nearly a year. Dr. Schwartz will be the first Black woman to lead the CDC.
Schwartz was confirmed Wednesday in a 51-44 vote, with support largely following party lines. Republican senators backed her nomination, while most Democrats opposed it. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) crossed party lines to vote in favor after previously saying he regretted voting against former CDC director Dr. Susan Monarez.
The confirmation comes at a pivotal moment for the CDC, which has operated under a series of acting leaders since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed Monarez in August 2025 after less than a month in the position. Most recently, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya had been leading the agency while simultaneously serving as director of the National Institutes of Health.
According to NBC News, Schwartz previously served as deputy surgeon general during President Donald Trump’s first administration after earlier military service as a Navy physician and chief medical officer for the U.S. Coast Guard. Her nomination was submitted a month after the administration missed the statutory deadline for naming a permanent CDC director.
Schwartz assumes leadership as the CDC confronts several significant public health challenges. NBC News reported that the agency is responding to the nation’s highest measles case count in 35 years, alongside a growing outbreak of cyclosporiasis linked to shredded iceberg lettuce and continued concerns over declining vaccine confidence.
Her confirmation process, however, was not without scrutiny. During Senate hearings, lawmakers questioned whether Schwartz would maintain the CDC’s scientific independence amid ongoing debates over federal vaccine policy.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and physician, publicly pressed Schwartz on whether she would push back against policies that could undermine public confidence in immunizations. After additional discussions with the nominee and colleagues who had worked alongside her, Cassidy ultimately endorsed her confirmation, saying he believed she would defend scientific integrity, NBC News reported.
Public health advocacy organizations remained divided. Some criticized Schwartz’s testimony as insufficiently clear regarding how she would shield the CDC from political influence, while the Department of Health and Human Services defended her qualifications, pointing to her decades of medical and military leadership.
During her confirmation hearing, Schwartz pledged that scientific evidence would guide her decisions.
As NBC News noted, she told senators that providing Americans with “clear, honest and evidence-based” public health guidance would be her “sacred responsibility,” adding that she would “never betray the science.