The U.S. Senate confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday by a 51-44 vote, making her the first permanent leader of the agency since August 2025.
Schwartz, a retired Navy rear admiral and former deputy surgeon general, is President Donald Trump's third nominee for the post. She will be the first Black woman to lead the CDC. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia was the sole Democrat to support her nomination.
The position had been vacant since former director Susan Monarez was ousted 29 days into the job following a dispute with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya had served as acting director since February. Schwartz inherits an agency that has lost thousands of employees and is confronting the worst U.S. measles resurgence in three decades, alongside cyclosporiasis and Ebola outbreaks abroad.