The Trump administration has chosen a new director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Brenda Fitzgerald, the former commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health.
As head of the CDC, Fitzgerald will oversee the agency’s work in responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Zika and avian flu; collecting data on drug overdoses and other causes of injury and death for Americans; and conducting research on public health. She’ll also lead the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which examines the health effects of toxins in the environment. She replaces Tom Frieden, who stepped down in January.
Fitzgerald has worked as an obstetrician-gynecologist for about three decades, STAT News reports. She’s also dabbled in politics, twice running unsuccessfully to be the Republican nominee for Congress for Georgia’s 7th congressional district in the early 1990s
