CDC deputy director Jennifer Shuford to leave in November

Dr. Jennifer Shuford, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s deputy director and chief medical officer, will leave the agency on Nov. 12, adding to a series of departures from senior federal health posts.

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. It has been an amazing experience and I will be forever grateful for it,” she said in a statement shared by the agency.

Dr. Satish Pillai, who leads the CDC’s Ebola response, will serve as acting deputy director and chief medical officer while the agency searches for a permanent successor, a CDC spokesperson told NBC News.

President Donald Trump announced Shuford’s appointment in April, and she began the two roles in June, NBC News reported. The Guardian described her as part of a four-person senior leadership team announced that month. Trump called its members “Highly Respected Doctors of Medicine” who had the qualifications to restore the “GOLD STANDARD OF SCIENCE at the CDC,” according to The Guardian.

Before joining the CDC, Shuford was Texas’ chief state epidemiologist during the Covid pandemic. She became commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services in 2022. In that post, she oversaw the response to a West Texas measles outbreak that caused more than 750 cases and killed two school-age children, NBC News reported.

CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz announced Shuford’s departure in an email to staff Tuesday. “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 wrote.

The departure follows repeated changes in CDC leadership. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired former director Susan Monarez in August 2025, 29 days after she took the role, NBC News reported. The Guardian reported that Monarez publicly described Kennedy’s directives as “unscientific.” The CDC then went about a year without a permanent director before the Senate confirmed Schwartz in August, according to NBC News.

NBC News also reported that principal deputy director Dr. Ralph Abraham stepped down in February and that Dr. Allison Arwady, who led the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, announced her departure in June. Four senior officials resigned after Monarez’s firing last year; three cited concerns about political interference in the agency’s scientific process.

Other federal health agencies have seen senior departures this year, NBC News reported. Calley Means, an advocate for Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, left a senior adviser role at the Department of Health and Human Services last week. In May, Dr. Marty Makary resigned as Food and Drug Administration commissioner after opposing administration moves to expand access to flavored e-cigarettes. The FDA’s vaccine chief also stepped down that month, and the head of its division overseeing over-the-counter and prescription drugs said she had been fired.