The CDC has a new leader. What should her game plan be?
On Aug. 5, 2026, the Senate confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz as the new CDC director. As she takes the helm of an agency recovering from a turbulent year, Northeastern University experts discuss her most pressing priorities.
After nearly a year without a leader, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally has a new captain at the helm.
On Wednesday, the Senate confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz as the CDC’s new director in a 51-44 vote that fell almost perfectly along party lines. Schwartz acted as the deputy surgeon general in the first Trump administration and is the third nominee for the role in the last two years.
As the head of the nation’s leading public health agency, Schwartz will oversee an organization responsible for investigating disease outbreaks, conducting research, analyzing health data and translating scientific findings into public health guidance.
Her multidisciplinary background includes service in the U.S. Navy and in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She also holds degrees in law and medicine from the University of Maryland and Brown University, respectively.
After a turbulent year, the CDC has some fences to mend. A June 9, 2026, deBeaumont poll showed that confidence in the organization had plummeted in recent months, with only half of U.S. adults reporting they trust its recommendations, compared to 77% in 2025.
Add to that a number of outbreaks in illnesses, such as the one caused by Cyclospora, a foodborne parasite that leads to explosive diarrhea, a deadly shooting in the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters, large-scale funding cuts, staff turnover, and a Congressional spat with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the issue of childhood vaccinations that led to the firing of previous CDC director Susan Monarez, and it becomes clear that a new leader faces a challenging to-do list.
How will she guide the agency into a new chapter while navigating the fallout of a stormy year?
The following professors from Northeastern University’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences shared their thoughts with Northeastern Global News on what Schwartz’s priorities should be when she steps into her new role:
Michael Johansson, Tamara Jimah, Samantha Garbers, Robert Leeman, John Lowrey, Elizabeth Glowacki, Beth Molnar, and Ralph Loring.
Building a strong foundation is the first step — and it starts with rebuilding trust.
First order of business? For Michael Johansson and Tamara Jimah, it’s getting the CDC back on its feet.
The agency “has been challenged by changing leadership and weak coordination,” Johansson said, adding that rebuilding its workforce and strengthening its partnerships will help it translate science into policies that prevent and control diseases.
The CDC “needs strong leadership to maintain and grow expertise and provide the best evidence-based recommendations to protect American lives,” he said.
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Likewise, Jimah sees restoring the CDC’s standing as a top priority. She pointed to three critical ingredients for success: stronger partnerships, greater preparedness and a continued commitment to health equity.
“Fostering partnerships across academic, private, public, and global sectors” will be key for driving research and innovation forward, she said. It’s also important to boost “preparedness and response to emerging health threats, particularly in light of recent outbreaks,” she added.
Finally, keeping health equity central will ensure “that communities have access to and benefit from essential health services,” she said.
The data should do the talking, especially when it comes to vaccines.
For Samantha Garbers and Robert Leeman, sound public health decisions start with sound data.
“My top priority would be to focus on data-driven decision-making,” Garbers said, adding that it requires “ensuring funding for effective data collection and interpretation.” Moreover, it’s important to make sure that health officials and the public alike “have access to credible, accurate, up-to-date data” on subjects like vaccine safety and efficacy, she said.
Garbers also emphasized the need to restore people’s confidence — both in public health as a system and in “the CDC’s role in promoting the health of the public.”
Leeman emphasized the importance of science-based decision-making, particularly on the subject of vaccines. “I believe that sending a clear, unequivocal message that vaccines are safe is of great importance,” he said. He hopes this translates into recommendations that parents should vaccinate their children, including with the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine.
Public health should be for the public.
John Lowrey and Elizabeth Glowacki stressed the importance of accessible healthcare.
Healthcare should also be regular rather than episodic, Lowrey said. It should extend beyond pharmacology and reach those who need it most — for example, those struggling with obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mental health, he explained.
He also said that “one of Dr. Schwartz’s greatest opportunities is to strengthen the connection between public health and healthcare delivery.” It could mean “fostering stronger partnerships with healthcare systems and frontline providers” and making sure that recommendations are “practical to implement in real-world care settings,” he said.
Glowacki would like to see Schwartz address accessibility factors such as cost, transportation, language and healthcare infrastructure while promoting preventive care by encouraging and investing in screenings, testing services and programs that support healthy lifestyle changes and educate the public about them.
She also emphasized the importance of communicating “accurate and credible information” in ways that account for basic and health literacy, preferred communication channels and language barriers.
As for specific public health threats, she hopes that “gambling addiction, food insecurity, vaccines and infectious disease prevention, loneliness, and disability rights” will be on Schwartz’s radar.
Control and prevention can’t run on empty.
Protecting the nation’s health requires resources, and Beth Molnar suggested that “it is imperative that Dr. Schwartz works to restore the enormous cuts that have been made to the CDC’s workforce across all departments.”
They should also bring back full staffing, she said, especially “given the current outbreaks of measles, cyclosporiasis, and Ebola, as well as continued concerns about COVID-19 and other diseases.”
Molnar also hopes Schwartz will allocate funding for injury prevention.
“Child abuse, sexual violence, intimate partner violence, gun violence, suicide, and overdose deaths remain very big concerns in public health,” she said, and the CDC can only do them justice if they restore funding and staff.
Before the cuts in 2025 and 2026, infectious diseases and injury prevention used to be areas where the CDC excelled both globally and nationally, Molnar said.
Politics and prevention of disease don’t mix.
Finally, Ralph Loring mentioned the importance of keeping politics from running the show, especially given the political drama surrounding the last director’s departure.
“I think any director of the CDC would have to protect the agency from political interference,” he said.
