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Dr. Jennifer Shuford, deputy director and chief medical officer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has resigned, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday, ABC News reports. Shuford was hired in April. Her last day will be Nov. 12.
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Shop NowShuford gave a family reason for leaving. “I am leaving to spend more time with my family,” she said in a statement. “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.”
CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz thanked her in a separate statement. “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 said.
Satish Pillai will serve as acting chief medical officer and deputy director in the interim.
The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, reported that Shuford objected to the administration’s approach to vaccine policy and that this was a factor in her decision.
Shuford’s own statement cites only her family and does not mention vaccine policy.
Shuford was appointed in April alongside two other officials, at the same time President Donald Trump nominated Schwartz to lead the agency. Announcing the team, Trump wrote that the “Highly Respected Doctors of Medicine have the knowledge, experience, and TOP degrees to restore the GOLD STANDARD OF SCIENCE at the CDC.”
ABC’s report includes no reaction from Trump to her resignation; the Trump remarks it cites date from that April announcement.
Before joining the CDC, Shuford served as Texas’ chief state epidemiologist and later as commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.
She is board-certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases and earned her medical degree at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, according to her CDC biography.
She has been a vocal supporter of vaccination. In February 2025, as measles spread in western Texas, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said such outbreaks were “not unusual.”
That same month, Shuford told CNN the Texas outbreak was unusual for the state. “We haven’t had this sort of an outbreak since the early 1990s and it’s seriously impacting the population in that region,” she said, adding that the community had seen falling vaccination rates.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Shuford also appeared in a Facebook video explaining how the COVID-19 vaccines work, including their efficacy and side effects.
