After President Trump’s first nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) failed to gain traction with Senate Republicans, he turned to Susan Monarez, a career federal health official who has been leading the agency in an acting capacity since January.

Former colleagues told The Hill that Monarez is an effective leader who has championed data-driven work and diversity, which could make her an awkward fit for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s Jr.’s agency, which has sent mixed messages on the safety of vaccines, gutted diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, and questioned myriad public health orthodoxies.

Monarez is well-respected in scientific circles and unlikely to face any resistance when she goes before the Senate for a confirmation hearing, which has not been announced a month after her nomination. Trump pulled his nomination of former Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) on March 13.

But Monarez almost surely will face controversy in the job, which will require her to navigate the public health establishment on one side and Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement on the other.

Brett Giroir, former U.S. assistant secretary for health and former acting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, who worked with Monarez during the recent Trump transition, described her as “brilliant, data-driven and nonpartisan.”

“My sense is Dr. Monarez was chosen because HHS leadership understands she will provide an objective, data and science-driven assessment of prospective policy and operational changes that are currently being considered,” Giroir, now CEO of Altesa BioSciences, told The Hill.

Among those policy changes was Trump’s ban on DEI across the federal government, which led the CDC to pull down data and websites on topics like vaccines, sexually transmitted diseases and LGBTQ........

© The Hill