CDC Director Gerberding To Resign Effective Jan. 20
CDC Director Julie Gerberding last week offered her resignation to President-elect Barack Obama, effective Jan. 20, according to an agency statement, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (Young, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1/10). Gerberding has served as CDC director since July 2002 (AP/New York Times, 1/11). According to the statement, "As part of the transition process, the administration requested resignation letters from a number of senior-level officials, including Dr. Julie Gerberding. This week, the administration accepted Dr. Gerberding's resignation, effective January 20. As Dr. Gerberding noted in a November e-mail to CDC leadership, she has always expected that she would be leaving after the administration changes" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1/10).Possible replacements for Gerberding include James Marks, a former senior CDC official who currently serves as a senior vice president at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Helene Gayle, a former CDC director for HIV/AIDS and president and CEO of CARE; and Thomas Frieden, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (McKay/Mundy, Wall Street Journal, 1/12). Gerberding informed CDC employees about her resignation in an e-mail sent on Friday. The e-mail also said that CDC Chief Operating Officer Bill Gimson will serve as acting director of the agency until Obama names a replacement for Gerberding (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1/10).
The Journal-Constitution on Sunday examined the legacy of Gerberding. During her tenure at CDC, "critics lambasted her, accusing her of sacrificing science for politics and carrying the Bush agenda on global warming and other issues into the world of scientific research," and her supporters "countered that she kept the agency above political concerns and expanded its mission to include bioterrorism research, combating AIDS globally and responding to national health threats" (Schneider/Scott, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1/11).
Acting FDA Commissioner
In related news, the Bush administration late Friday announced that Frank Torti, chief scientist at FDA, will serve as acting commissioner of the agency until Obama nominates a permanent commissioner (Mundy, Dow Jones, 1/10). Obama might name a permanent FDA commissioner within the next three weeks, according to individuals close to the process (Wall Street Journal, 1/12).
