CDC Deputy Director Jennifer Shuford to Resign After Six Months

Jennifer Shuford, deputy director and chief medical officer of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will resign from the agency after six months in the job, according to The Guardian. She is expected to leave her post on 12 November.

Shuford said she is leaving the CDC to spend more time with her family. She personally told The Washington Post that she is leaving the agency. Her full name is Jennifer A. Shuford, MD, MPH. She is an infectious disease physician, and before joining the CDC she had been Texas's health commissioner, the state's top public health official, according to the Post.

President Donald Trump appointed Shuford to the CDC in April as part of a four-person senior leadership team. The Post reported that she was part of a team hired to restore confidence in the agency.

Her departure comes after a period of turnover at the top of the agency. In April, Trump fired Susan Monarez as CDC director, leaving the post open, Reuters reported. Monarez had left the job after less than a month. The same report said Trump nominated Erica Schwartz, a former deputy surgeon general, to lead the agency. Schwartz is now the CDC's director.