Brenda Fitzgerald, Georgia's public health commissioner, named director of the CDC

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

Brenda Fitzgerald, Georgias public health commissioner, named director of the CDC

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/georgia-health-commissioner-named-head-of-the-cdc-1499437489

[div class"excerpt"]Georgia Health Commissioner Named Head of the CDC
Obstetrician-gynecologist once worked as a health-care policy adviser to Newt Gingrich

By Betsy McKay

https://twitter.com/betswrites
[e-mail]

Updated July 7, 2017 11:17 a.m. ET

Georgia's public health commissioner was named director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, ending months of speculation over who would fill a critical role leading an agency in charge of public health matters from battling epidemics to vaccination policy.

The Trump administration named Brenda Fitzgerald to succeed Thomas Frieden, who served as director from 2009 until January. Anne Schuchat, a CDC veteran, has been acting director of the Atlanta-based agency since then and will return now to her previous role as principal deputy director, the Department of Health and Human Services said.

Dr. Fitzgerald is an obstetrician-gynecologist who has practiced in Georgia for three decades and has served as commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health and state health officer since 2011. She has close relationships with Republican political leaders from the state, including HHS Secretary Tom Price and Newt Gingrich, the former U.S. Speaker of the House, for whom she worked as a health-care policy adviser. She ran unsuccessfully for Congress twice in the early 1990s.
....

Dr. Fitzgeralds background in public health, rather than medicine, isnt as deep as that of many previous CDC directorsmany of whom have masters degrees in public health, or trained as epidemiologists. But she is well regarded by public health officials and was the president-elect of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. .... Dr. Fitzgerald did her medical training at Emory and Emory-Grady hospitals in Atlanta. As a major in the U.S. Air Force, she served at the Wurtsmith Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC) Base in Michigan and at the Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, D.C.

Write to Betsy McKay at [e-mail]

[LisaM]

1. Strange, she actually seems somewhat qualified for the job.

How'd he manage to pick her? This is so out of the usual for this administrations "Fox in the Henhouse" approach to getting people to head departments.

[YOHABLO]

2. Well if she has close ties to Price and Gingrich she's probably an 'R'.

Could be wrong on this, but then I don't see any appointees of this admin. not being an 'R'.

[Marcuse]

3. The deconstruction of the administrative state.

The CDC, which is in charge of public health and disease prevention, would see its budget cut by $1.2 billion. Dr. Tom Frieden, who was director of the agency until 2017, went off on the proposed cuts on Twitter on Monday, saying Americans would be "less safe," and that the cuts "would increase illness, death, risks to Americans, and health care costs."



http://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-2018-budget-health-2017-5

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Dr. Tom Frieden on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/drfrieden

My comments on Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, named to lead CDC - the greatest public health agency in the world. NPR:

Link to tweet

[link:http://www.npr.org/2017/07/07/536025763/trump-administration-appoints-dr-brenda-fitzgerald-as-new-cdc-director|
Trump Administration Appoints Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald As New CDC Director]

July 7, 20174:31 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered