Staff Bio
As the principal deputy director, Susan Monarez, PhD shall also be designated as first assistant to the director. As first assistant to the director, she will serve as acting CDC director and ATSDR administrator effective as of January 23, 2025.
Previous experience
Dr. Monarez comes to CDC from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), most recently serving as deputy director of ARPA-H since January 2023.
Prior to joining ARPA-H, Dr. Monarez led high-impact initiatives focusing on the ethical use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to support improved health outcomes, novel approaches to addressing affordability and accessibility in healthcare, expanding access to behavioral and mental health interventions, ending the opioid epidemic, addressing health disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality, and improving the country's organ donation and transplantation programs.
Dr. Monarez served at the White House in the Office of Science and Technology Policy and on the National Security Council, leading efforts to enhance the nation's biomedical innovation capabilities, including combating antimicrobial resistance, expanding the use of wearables to promote patient health, ensuring personal health data privacy, and improving pandemic preparedness. She has also held leadership positions at the Department of Homeland Security and has led numerous international cooperative initiatives to promote bilateral and multilateral health innovation research and development.