What we know about the new CDC director amid praise from doctors
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump nominated Dr. Erica Schwartz as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
If confirmed by the Senate, Schwartz -- a former deputy surgeon general -- would replace Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, who took over as acting CDC director in February.
Many in the medical community applauded the nomination, saying Schwartz brings decades of medical experience that will serve the agency well.
"I don't know Dr. Schwartz personally but, from what I've read, it sounds like she would be an excellent candidate to be CDC director," Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the division of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told ABC News.
"She has a history in public health and in supporting the public's health, which is a welcome change from what we have now ... I think this is a welcome change in the right direction toward public health," he added.
Here's what we know about the recently nominated director:
Schwartz enrolled in Brown University's eight-year Program in Liberal Medical Education, earning a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering in 1994 and a medical degree in 1998. She earned her master of public health degree in 2000 from Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
"One of the things that I'm most encouraged by is that Dr. Schwartz is an MD [and MPH], which signals to me that she has not only clinical health credentialing, but she also really understands public health and the difference between the two," Sharon Gilmartin, executive director of the non-profit Safe States Alliance, which focuses on injury and violence prevention, told ABC News.
"And for topics like injury and violence prevention, which is what my organization focuses on, somebody who really understands that population health approach is critically important," she continued.
Schwartz enlisted in the Navy in 1994, during which she served as a Navy Occupational Medicine physician with postings including Chief of the Occupational Medicine Clinic and the Immunization Clinic and head of the preventive medicine department at the Naval Medical Clinic in Annapolis, according to her Department of Homeland Security profile.
Schwartz also served as an occupational medicine physician and clinical epidemiologist at the Navy and Marine Corps Force Health Protection Command.
In 2005, Schwartz left the Navy, transferring to the Public Health Service and Coast Guard.
In 2015, Schwartz became the Coast Guard Chief Medical Officer before she served as Deputy Surgeon General from 2019 to early 2021, during the first Trump administration.
Prior to being nominated as CDC director, she served as president of insurance solutions for UnitedHealthcare and served on the board of directors for home care provider Aveanna Healthcare. She currently serves on the board of directors for medical imaging company Butterfly Network.
During her time with the Coast Guard, Schwartz instituted a disease surveillance program and vaccination programs. She also wrote the first health protection policies including the Pandemic Influenza Force Health Protection policy, the Anthrax and Smallpox Vaccination policies, the Quarantinable Communicable Disease policy, the Periodic Health Assessment policy, and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus policy, the profile stated.
Schwartz also instituted Chemical, Biological and Radiologic Medical Countermeasures programs and developed health protection guidance for a number of operations in which the Coast Guard were deployed including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon Operation and an Ebola outbreak in West Africa, according to the profile.
The profile said Schwartz served as the Coast Guard's principal expert on pandemic influenza and served as one of the Ebola Crisis Action Team leaders.
During her time as deputy surgeon general, Schwartz helped lead nationwide COVID-19 vaccine deployment and served as the HHS' point person for the transition between the Trump and Biden administrations.
"Dr. Schwartz is highly qualified," Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told ABC News. "She's a preventive medicine doctor. She's had a long career at the U.S. Public Health Service and at the Coast Guard … has had leadership roles related to COVID. So, I don't have any qualms about her qualifications. I think she's exactly the type of person that you would expect to be on the list to run CDC."
Not everyone has reacted positively to Schwartz's nomination. Aaron Siri, who has served as Kennedy's personal attorney and has filed many lawsuits against federal agencies like the CDC and has advocated against vaccine mandates said her selection to lead HHS "would likely be a disaster."
