Jennifer Shuford, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s deputy director and chief medical officer, is leaving the administration after a short tenure, she confirmed to The Washington Post late Monday night.
“I am leaving to spend more time with my family,” Shuford said in a statement. “I am so thankful to President Trump and Secretary Kennedy for giving me the opportunity to help lead CDC. It has been an amazing experience, and I will be forever grateful for it.”
Shuford had also disagreed with the administration’s approach to vaccine policy and it was a factor in her decision to leave, according to two people familiar with her departure.
The Post had previously reported Shuford’s planned departure, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive personnel matter.
Shuford, an infectious-disease physician who had served as health commissioner of Texas, was hired in April as part of a new four-person leadership team tapped to run the CDC and restore confidence in the agency, Trump officials said at the time. She has helped lead the agency’s strategic public health efforts, including coordinating the CDC’s response to an overseas Ebola outbreak.
Shuford’s last day at the CDC will be Nov. 12, an administration official said. Satish Pillai, a career official, will serve as the agency’s acting deputy director and chief medical officer while the CDC looks for a permanent replacement for Shuford, the official said.
Shuford’s departure comes after recent developments that have renewed questions about the Trump administration’s approach to vaccine policy, including delays in updating the CDC’s measles database and President Donald Trump’s continuing push to change childhood vaccine recommendations.
Last year, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. clashed with the CDC’s then-leader, Susan Monarez, over vaccine policy and forced her out after less than one month in the job.
Monarez’s ouster sparked bipartisan backlash and questions about whether the agency could be trusted to shape vaccine policy and other U.S. public health efforts. Shuford and the administration’s other recent hires, including CDC Director Erica Schwartz, have worked to tamp down those concerns.
“I am deeply grateful for Dr. Shuford’s outstanding leadership and commitment to CDC and public health, especially as she has navigated an exceptionally demanding, high-profile, and constantly evolving environment over the past several months,” Schwartz said in a statement.
CDC scientists had been optimistic about Shuford’s hiring because of her public health background and her willingness to speak out about Texas’s measles outbreak last year — even as Kennedy, the nation’s top public health official, has played down measles outbreaks, career staff at the agency told The Post.
This week HHS Secretary RFK Jr. said measles outbreaks are “not unusual,” but as Texas state health commissioner Dr. Jennifer Shuford explains, “this outbreak is unusual for Texas, we haven’t had this sort of an outbreak since the early 1990’s.” pic.twitter.com/wFSs3I5Xua
— Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenez) February 28, 2025
Shuford’s departure came as a surprise to some colleagues and direct reports who met with her Monday, hours before The Post’s article published, and did not know that she planned to leave, according to a former official with knowledge of those conversations.
The CDC, long seen as the world’s leading public health agency, failed to respond effectively to the coronavirus pandemic and must work to restore public trust, past leaders have said. Kennedy was also a prominent critic of the agency before Trump tapped him to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC.
Under Trump and Kennedy, the agency has seen layoffs and pursued policies that have worried public health leaders. The CDC has not held any media briefings since then-Deputy Director Ralph Abraham in January played down the nation’s rising number of measles cases in a conversation with reporters.
Some staff members have been disappointed that the CDC’s new leadership team has not done more to publicly advocate vaccines, even as Trump and Kennedy continue to question the shots’ value and call for rethinking how children are vaccinated.
Schwartz, Shuford and Sean Slovenski — the CDC’s recently hired chief operating officer — met with staff members at the end of August. At that meeting, Schwartz told employees she was prepared to earn their trust and “speak truth to power” in meetings with Kennedy, but do so in private, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The Post.
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