President Biden intends Dr. Mandy Cohen, a former North Carolina health secretary who guided her state through the tumultuous first two years of the coronavirus pandemic, as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to two people familiar with the selection process.
The selection of Dr. Cohen, first reported by The Washington Post, is not definitive. The White House is still gathering the necessary paperwork to make the nomination official, another person familiar with the selection process said. But dr. Cohen is the leading candidate, this person said.
The White House declined to comment. Dr. Cohen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If elected by Mr. Biden, Dr. Cohen, an internist, would replace Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, an infectious disease expert who announced last month that he would step down at the end of June. Dr. Walensky led the CDC through hard times; the agency had become demoralized under President Donald J. Trump and came under strong criticism under both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden.
In North Carolina, Dr. Cohen served from 2017 to 2021 under Governor Roy Cooper as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. In that position, she established herself as a trusted and steady voice who maintained the public’s trust despite deep political divisions, people who worked with her said.
Dr. Addressing graduating students at Guilford College in North Carolina last month, Cohen made trust the theme of her commencement speech. “Change happens at the pace of confidence,” she said, adding that while it’s possible to motivate people to change their behavior by scaring them, “fear only gets you so far.”
A point in favor of Dr. Cohen is that, unlike Dr. Walensky, has prior experience in the federal government. Prior to becoming North Carolina’s secretary of health, she held several positions in the Obama administration, including chief operating officer and chief of staff at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Dr. Cohen is currently an executive at Aledade, a company that supports physicians and health clinics.
While Congress passed legislation last year requiring the CDC director to be subject to Senate confirmation, the provision won’t take effect until 2025, so Dr. Cohen could start serving right away.
“Mandy Cohen used a steady hand to help my administration guide North Carolina through the pandemic to rank among the states with the lowest per capita deaths and job losses,” Democrat Cooper said in a statement. “She is a brilliant, talented and time-tested leader who would make a fantastic CDC director.”
Public health experts Dr. Knowing Cohen or having worked with her said her experience leading the North Carolina pandemic response and her years in federal agencies would be a tremendous asset to a CDC director. The CDC has come under repeated fire during the pandemic for its confused reporting, but Dr. Cohen was praised as a clear communicator.
“North Carolina is a purple state, which is relevant when we were in a public health emergency that was extremely politicized,” said Dr. Neel Shah, the chief medical officer of Maven Clinic, a digital healthcare provider, has known Dr. Cohen since they were both resident physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital. He said Dr. Cohen “has done a great job of making an impact in that kind of climate.”
In the public health community, Dr. Cohen has a reputation for creating innovative programs, including a solution to enable state governments to use Medicaid dollars to help low-income people with housing, food security and other needs that may affect their health.
“People talk about North Carolina with a certain excitement in their voices,” says Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, the vice dean for public health practices and community engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who worked closely with Dr. Cohen when he was Maryland’s Secretary of Health and she was a federal official.
The pandemic exposed a deep divide between public health and medicine, and Dr. Cohen is trying to bridge that gap, in part by having primary care physicians provide preventative care, said Dr. Sharfstein.
“There are a lot of opportunities at the intersection of healthcare and public health, and CDC hasn’t really been able to capitalize on those opportunities,” he said.