On Wednesday, the Senate approved Dr. Erica Schwartz as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), marking the first time in nearly a year that the agency has had an officially confirmed leader.

Dr. Schwartz received confirmation with a vote tally of 51 to 44. The CDC has been operating without a Senate-approved director since late August 2025, when former director Susan Monarez was removed from her position just 29 days after her appointment. Since February, Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health, has been serving as the acting director of the CDC.

A retired rear admiral of the Navy, Schwartz previously held the position of deputy surgeon general and has significant experience managing the healthcare system for the U.S. Coast Guard.

Schwartz earned her bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and her medical degree from Brown University, along with a law degree from the University of Maryland. She has participated in pandemic responses, including those related to Ebola and H1N1, as noted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Notably, she will be the first Black woman to lead the CDC.

Monarez, the previous director, stated that she was dismissed from her role for refusing to adhere to vaccine recommendations from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which she argued lacked a scientific basis.

Dr. Schwartz steps into her new role during a time of heightened concern regarding the Ebola outbreak in Africa and amid growing criticism of the Trump administration’s vaccine policies.

Alan He contributed to this report.