Principal Deputy Director of CDC

Anne Schuchat, MD,  began her public health career in 1988 when she came to CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer. She is currently CDC principal deputy director, a role she has held since September 2015.  She served as acting CDC director from January-July 2017 and was director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases from 2006-2015. Other CDC leadership posts include: acting director of the Center for Global Health (2012-13) and the National Center for Infectious Diseases (2005) as well as Chief of the Respiratory Diseases Branch (1998-2005). Dr. Schuchat was the initial medical director of ABCs – the Active Bacterial Core surveillance of the Emerging Infections Program Network and spearheaded prevention of newborn infection from group B streptococcal disease in the 1990s. She was promoted to Rear Admiral in the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service in 2006 and earned a second star in 2010. Dr. Schuchat was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) in 2008.

Dr. Schuchat has played key roles in a number of CDC emergency responses. Most notably, she served as Chief Health Officer for CDC’s 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza response; led the CDC team responding to the SARS outbreak in Beijing in 2003; and supported the Washington D.C. field team during the 2001 bioterrorist anthrax response.

Globally, Dr. Schuchat has worked in West Africa on meningitis, pneumonia, and Ebola vaccine trials; in South Africa on surveillance and prevention projects, and represented technical and health research institutes on the GAVI Alliance board. She has authored or co-authored more than 230 scientific articles, book chapters, and reviews. Her contributions have been recognized by receipt of USPHS Meritorious Service Medals, the American Public Health Association’s Maternal and Child Health Young Investigator Award, the USPHS Physician Research Officer of the Year, and an Honorary Doctorate in Science from Swarthmore College. Dr. Schuchat graduated with highest honors from Swarthmore College and with honors from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and completed her residency and chief residency in internal medicine at NYU’s Manhattan VA Hospital.