CDC Director Rochelle Walensky submits resignation days ahead of end of PHE

Dr. Rochelle Walensky

Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced her intent to depart the agency at the end of June. 

"The end of the COVID-19 public health emergency marks a tremendous transition for our country, for public health, and in my tenure as CDC Director," Walensky wrote to President Joe Biden after the launch of Moving Forward. "I took on this role, at your request, with the goal of leaving behind the dark days of the pandemic and moving CDC – and public health – forward into a much better and more trusted place. In the process, we saved and improved lives and protected the country and the world from the greatest infectious disease threat we have seen in over 100 years."

Walensky's last day will be June 30, CDC officials said, according to an AP report. An interim director wasn't immediately named. Walensky sent the resignation letter to Biden and reportedly announced the decision at a CDC staff meeting.

Biden said by statement: "Dr. Walensky has saved lives with her steadfast and unwavering focus on the health of every American. As Director of the CDC, she led a complex organization on the frontlines of a once-in-a-generation pandemic with honesty and integrity. She marshaled our finest scientists and public health experts to turn the tide on the urgent crisis we've faced. Dr. Walensky leaves CDC a stronger institution, better positioned to confront health threats and protect Americans. We have all benefited from her service and dedication to public health, and I wish her the best in her next chapter."

Walensky began her tenure as the 19th director of the CDC In January 2021, shortly after Biden was sworn in as president. She leaves as the public health emergency is coming to an end on Thursday, May 11. 

The World Health Organization on Friday said that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency. Deaths in the U.S. are reportedly at their lowest point since the earliest days of the coronavirus outbreak in early 2020.

Walensky has led the agency through a transition to greater normalcy across the country, after two years of COVID-19 related closures and waves of dangerous, new virus variants, the CDC said. She launched Moving Forward – a wide-ranging set of reforms designed to strengthen CDC communications and response operations. 

"Importantly, Walensky helped restore morale and a sense of normalcy to an agency that had been enduring significant public adversity related to the COVID-19 pandemic," the CDC said.

Prior to joining CDC, Walensky served as chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2017-2020 and professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2012-2020. 

She served on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted research on vaccine delivery and strategies to reach underserved communities, the CDC said. Walensky is recognized internationally for her work to improve HIV screening and care in South Africa and nationally for motivating health policy and informing clinical trial design and evaluation in a variety of settings.

"While at CDC, I had the true gift of meeting, working with, and giving voice to thousands of people at the agency who work 24/7 to worry about health and public health so that the rest of the nation does not have to," Walensky said by statement. "I have never been prouder of anything I have done in my professional career."

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said, "Dr. Walensky helped lead an unprecedented whole-of-government response during a historic pandemic. We are living our lives again and the American people are safer now because Dr. Walensky led the CDC with real facts and science. She did not yield to the pressures of expediency or politics. And she always put people first. Under her direction, we began the critically important work of modernizing our public health infrastructure and she leaves the CDC better positioned to respond to public health threats. Working alongside Dr. Walensky as a partner and friend has been an immense honor. I thank her for her leadership and look forward to witnessing her future successes." 
 

Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org