WASHINGTON (AP) —
President Donald Trump will nominate Susan Monarez, the acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a longtime federal staffer, to the permanent position, a White House official confirmed Monday.
Trump abruptly withdrew the nomination of his first pick, David Weldon, earlier this month.
Monarez has been serving as the CDC’s acting director since January and came from another federal agency, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. Monarez, 50, holds a doctorate in microbiology and immunology from the University of Wisconsin, and her postdoctoral training was in microbiology and immunology at Stanford University.
A CDC spokesperson referred a question about Monarez to the White House. In a social media post, Trump said that Monarez will work closely with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“As an incredible mother and dedicated public servant, Dr. Monarez understands the importance of protecting our children, our communities, and our future,” Trump said in the post on Monday afternoon. “Americans have lost confidence in the CDC due to political bias and disastrous mismanagement.”
Earlier this month, the White House withdrew the nomination of Weldon, a former Florida congressman, to lead the CDC. Weldon told the media his nomination was withdrawn because “there were not enough votes to get me confirmed.” Weldon was closely aligned with Kennedy, who for years has been one of the nation’s leading anti-vaccine activists.
The CDC is based in Atlanta and has a core budget of more than $9 billion. It was created nearly 80 years ago to prevent the spread of malaria in the U.S. Its mission was later expanded, and it gradually became a global leader on infectious and chronic diseases and a go-to source of health information.
Prior to being named the CDC's acting director earlier this year, Monarez was largely known for her government roles in health technology and biosecurity.
She came from ARPA-H, a small agency that's also part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ARPA-H started in 2022 to help develop breakthrough technology for health. At that agency, she was known for working on AI; a 2022 post on the ARPA-H LinkedIn page described her as “the Kevin Bacon of biomedical innovation.”
Before that, she held roles at the Health Resources and Services Administration at HHS, the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Security Council. She once had a leadership position at the Department of Homeland Security and at the Biomedical Advanced Research Projects Authority in HHS, and also has served on a number of science advisory panels.
“She has several solid attributes: strong respect for science based decision making, has successfully worked in government, has managed programs in complex environments and is an expert in infectious disease. If confirmed, I look forward to working with her,” American Public Health Association executive director Dr. Georges Benjamin said in an email.
In the first week of the Trump administration, she was named as the agency's principal deputy director and was appointed the agency's acting director until Weldon was confirmed.
Some current and former CDC employees who have spoken with The Associated Press said in the last two months Monarez has widely been seen as a conduit for HHS directives. They also said she hasn’t held “all-hands” meetings at the agency and has not been a highly visible leader.
“She has communicated almost nothing with staff,” said one current employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being fired.
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Stobbe reported from New York.
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Seung Min Kim, Amanda Seitz And Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press
