New CDC director greets staff on first full day in office

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially has a new leader.

Tuesday morning, Dr. Mandy Cohen greeted CDC staff on her first full day in office at CDC Roybal Campus in Atlanta.

“I’m proud to be here at the CDC. It’s really important work,” Cohen told Atlanta News First.

On June 16, 2023, President Joe Biden announced his intent to appoint Cohen to the position, and she was sworn in on July 10 as the 20th director of the CDC at the age of 44.

Cohen earned a bachelor’s degree in policy analysis and management from Cornell University, a medical degree from the Yale School of Medicine, and a graduate degree in public health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“I here to meet the team and learn from them and run fast to catch up to where they’ve been,” Cohen said. “They’ve been doing a lot of good work, but we have a lot of work left to do, and so I’m excited to dive in.”

Cohen said her first task will be to make sure the nation is prepared for the fall and winter.

“We know that in the fall and winter, respiratory illnesses get worse,” she said. “We want to make sure that we are prepared, that we have vaccines, that we have medicines, that we’re talking to folks, that we have tests.”

Cohen’s ing staff seemed excited about her arrival.

“I think as we’re coming off the COVID pandemic, this is really an opportunity to have a new chapter in public health and look at the other public health issues we need to be addressing,” said Dr. Deb Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer. “We spent yesterday with her as a leadership team, and she was really energetic and talked a lot about how come together as a team and focus on really building trust and communicating with the public and working with communities and partners.”

Houry said it’s time for the agency to focus more energy on the overdose epidemic, mental health, and for young families.

“Dr. Cohen has had experience, too, as a practitioner and a physician, and that’s a really nice combination to really have that ‘boots on the ground,’” Houry said.

Former CDC director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky issued a statement saying, “Cohen is a respected public health leader who helped North Carolina successfully navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and has dedicated her career to improving health outcomes for all Americans.”

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