Rochelle Walensky stepping down as CDC director on June 30
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Rochelle Walensky is leaving her position as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, effective June 30.
Walensky made the announcement in an agency-wide conference call followed by a staff email on Friday.
She took charge of the agency in January 2021.
"We collectively moved CDC forward, reorganizing the agency and embarking on the necessary work to orient the enterprise toward public health action and foster accountability, timeliness and transparency in our work," she wrote in the email, The New York Times reported.
Her successor has yet to be determined.
"Dr. Walensky leaves CDC a stronger institution, better positioned to confront health threats and protect Americans," President Biden said in a statement.
Under her tenure, Walensky said the CDC "saved and improved lives and protected the country and the world from the greatest infectious disease threat we have seen in over 100 years."
Walensky's announcement comes as the federal government is set to end the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11.
Leading COVID-19 vaccine makers: Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)/ BioNTech (BNTX), Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), and Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX).
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