October 28, 2026
2 min read
Key takeaways:
- Jennifer A. Shuford, MD, said she wants to spend more time with family.
- Reports said she has disagreed with the administration’s stance on vaccines.
Jennifer A. Shuford, MD, MPH, resigned as the CDC’s deputy director and chief medical officer after spending just 4 months at the agency.
Shuford said she was leaving to spend more time with her family. “I am so thankful to President Trump and Secretary Kennedy for giving me the opportunity to help lead CDC,” she said in a statement provided to Healio. “It has been an amazing experience, and I will be forever grateful for it.”
The CDC announced that Jennifer Shuford, MD, resigned from her high-ranking dual role at the agency.
T he Washington Post first reported Shuford’s departure. Two anonymous sources told the Post that disagreements over the Trump administration’s vaccine policies factored into her decision to exit the agency.
Shuford’s departure comes amid the largest surge in measles cases in the United States since 1991, according to the CDC.
During Shuford’s brief stint, the administration continued its efforts to overhaul the childhood immunization schedule and make changes to the MMR vaccine, drawing sharp criticism from public health officials.
Satish K. Pillai, MD, MPH, will fill Shuford’s dual role at the CDC on an interim basis, HHS confirmed to Healio. Pillai led the agency’s initial Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this year but stepped down from that position in late July.
HHS said it will begin a search for a permanent successor “in the near future” but did not specify a timeline on when that decision could be made.
In a statement, CDC director Erica Schwartz, MD, JD, MPH, commended Shuford’s “outstanding leadership and commitment to the CDC and public health, especially as she has navigated an exceptionally demanding, high-profile, and constantly evolving environment over the past several months.”
Anne Schuchat, MD, former principal deputy director and two-time acting director of the CDC, told Healio that the agency will miss Shuford’s veteran public health leadership.
“It is always hard to know what may underpin a senior leader’s decision to step down, so I would not want to speculate,” Schuchat said. “But I can say that I had heard that Dr. Shuford was much appreciated by career staff who felt she had brought important state public health experience to the agency’s senior leadership. So, from that perspective it is certainly a loss.”
Shuford, whose last day is scheduled for Nov. 12, stepped into her dual role at the CDC in June. She had previously served as the commissioner of the Texas Department of Health and Human Services from 2022 to 2026, leading the state’s response to a measles outbreak in West Texas.
For more information:
Anne Schuchat, MD, can be reached at infectiousdisease@healio.com.
Sources/Disclosures
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Disclosures:
Schuchat report no relevant financial disclosures.
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