After withdrawing his first candidate to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), President Trump chose Susan Monares, a longtime federal employee and current CDC director, as his new choice.
Monales has worked in multiple offices for nearly 20 years for the federal government, but has not worked for the CDC before Trump bashed her as acting director for the agency shortly after he began his second term.
The Trump administration retracted the nomination of Florida Rep. David Weldon (R) earlier this month, leading the CDC earlier this month, with a former Congressman saying the reason for this is that it lacks sufficient support to ensure his confirmation among Republicans.
Monares has been acting as acting CDC director since January 23, 2025. Prior to this, she served as Associate Director of the Agency for Advanced Research Projects (ARPA-H). Before participating in government work, she was a science and technology policy fellow at the American Association for Progressive Science.
As she is an outsider of the agency, her promotion to the role of acting CDC director was unusual. If she is confirmed, she will also be the first CDC director in decades that won't become MD
Monares was also the first CDC director confirmed by the Senate, a new requirement for the position passed in Congress in 2022.
On his true social account, Trump wrote On Monday, “I am proud to announce that Dr. Susan Monales is my candidate for being the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Monales brings decades of experience advocating for innovation, transparency and a powerful public health system.”
“As an incredible mother and dedicated civil servant, Dr. Monales understands the importance of protecting our children, our community and our future,” Trump wrote, adding that Monales will work with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, “again, once again, American health.”
Monales reportedly showed his willingness to comply with a controversial executive order from the Trump White House in two months as CDC director. The New York Times reportedquoting people with knowledge of the event, Monales did not resist Trump's order to remove CDC web pages containing terms such as “LGBTQ” and “transgender,” and therefore refused to save any important data.
Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, spoke to the Times in a positive way about Monares.
“She is a solid researcher and has a high reputation as an infectious disease expert,” Benjamin said. “I think the public health community can work with her in a positive way.”
Monares began working for the federal government in 2006 with the Bureau of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development. Since then, she has also served in the White House roles of Science and Technology Policy, the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security.
Monares is not a stranger to publicly talk about her work, and although she regularly spoke with Beltway news outlet about her work at ARPA-H, including Hill, her previous role has not been made public.
However, her views on issues with infectious diseases, such as vaccinations and handling of virus outbreaks, have not been made public. Trump's former CDC candidate, Weldon, has publicly expressed his vaccine skepticism and elicited concerns from Republican senators.
Monales' nominations occurred amid severe measles outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico, with 370 confirmed cases as of Tuesday.
In her previous public engagement, she frequently helps integrate innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) into the healthcare sector.
in 2023 Conversation Along with former hill editor-in-chief Bob Cusack, Monales said, “AI completely transforms healthcare when used in a well-trained way, in a way that has real human checks and balances in what comes through predictive and generative models.”
In the same conversation, Monales spoke favorably about integrating AI into a healthcare environment in a way that reduces administrative burden, including visiting numerous clinics before patients are finally diagnosed.
She also spoke many times about her belief that healthcare innovation should be fair and accessible. When discussing the innovations ARPA-H was studying, Monares said that “surprising techniques” “doesn't want to go to only those who live in the correct postal code.
“That's not where we want to put our resources,” Monales said at the time.
Talk in Politico Events Last year, Monares said: [but] You are in a position where only a well-financed health care system can afford this. ”
She also spoke in favor of “comprehensive” and “fair” practices when discussing the development of clinical trial networks that can easily respond to pandemics such as Covid-19.
Monales said ARPA-H “sought to ensure an impartial clinical trial network.” They tried to secure a clinical trial network that “not only is it biased towards demographics, geographical and patient populations, but in fact it has a comprehensive clinical trial network.”
