Former CDC leaders land new positions

Three former top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have taken new positions after their ouster or resignation from the federal public health agency in August.

Drs. Susan Monarez and Debra Houry have been brought on to help launch the Public Health Network Innovation Exchange (PHNIX), a new California-led initiative, while Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, a gay man, has been hired as chief medical officer at Callen-Lorde, an LGBTQ-focused health center in New York City. 

PHNIX is the Golden State’s latest effort to fill the vacuum left by the Trump administration’s “retreat from science and evidence-based public health,” according to a December 15 announcement from Governor Gavin Newsom’s office.

“The Public Health Network Innovation Exchange is expected to bring together the best science, the best tools, and the best minds to advance public health,” Newsom stated. “By bringing on expert scientific leaders to partner in this launch, we’re strengthening collaboration and laying the groundwork for a modern public health infrastructure that will offer trust and stability in scientific data not just across California, but nationally and globally.”

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported , Monarez was ousted as CDC director after clashing with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy. This prompted the resignations of high-level agency leaders including Houry, formerly CDC’s chief medical officer, and Daskalakis, former director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

 
New public health initiative
In September, the California Legislature authorized $4 million for PHNIX for fiscal year 2025-2026, California Department of Public Health spokesperson Grant Boyken told the B.A.R.

“PHNIX is a direct response to the federal dismantling of national disease prevention, protection, and tracking programs, the termination of life-saving health programs and erosion of evidence and science-based policies, and the withdrawal from the global public health community,” according to Newsom’s announcement. 

As a strategic health technology and funding adviser for PHNIX, Monarez will lead the development of relationships and collaborations with the private sector, technology industry, and academic partners. Key priorities include data modernization and the development of artificial intelligence tools for public health and disease control, according to a scope-of-work document shared by Boyken.

“California has an extraordinary concentration of talent, technology, and investment, and this effort is about putting those strengths to work for the public good – modernizing how public health operates, accelerating innovation, and building a healthier, more resilient future for all Californians,” Monarez stated in Newsom’s announcement.

In her new role as senior regional and global public health medical adviser for PHNIX, Houry will represent CA DPH in discussions with the Governors Action Alliance (GovAct) ; the World Health Organization; the Pan-American Health Organization; and other state, national, and global health partners. She will serve as liaison to the new West Coast Health Alliance , which was formed in response to changes to CDC immunization recommendations opposed by many public health experts.

In addition, PHNIX also brought on science communication expert Katelyn Jetelina, Ph.D., best known for her popular Substack blog “Your Local Epidemiologist.”

“We’re living in a chaotic health information environment, and too often people are left to sort it out on their own,” Jetelina stated. “It’s time to step up and transform systems to put people first, starting with California.”

Daskalakis returns to his roots
Daskalakis will start his new role at Callen-Lorde in February, according to an announcement from the health center. In addition, he and Callen-Lorde CEO Patrick McGovern were appointed as members of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition committee on health.

Daskalakis was previously director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. Before that, he held leadership positions with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He was also deputy coordinator of the White House’s mpox response during the national outbreak in 2022. While serving in these roles, he never stopped seeing patients. Over the years, he has received acclaim for his intimate connection to the HIV and LGBTQ communities.

In his blistering CDC resignation letter posted on the social media platform X, Daskalakis criticized Kennedy and other Trump administration health officials, citing “disregard of normal communication channels and common sense” as well hostility toward the queer and HIV communities.

“For decades, I have been a trusted voice for the LGBTQ community when it comes to critical health topics. I must also cite the recklessness of the administration in their efforts to erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming and terminate key research to support equity as part of my decision,” he wrote.

Daskalakis has a deep connection to Callen-Lorde, having first encountered its clinics in 1997 while on rotations as a New York University medical student, according to the health center’s announcement.

“New York City is home for me, and my number one professional objective right now is to make sure that the full breadth of the LGBTQ+ community has a strong medical home,” Daskalakis said in a press statement. “Through clinical leadership, medical research and community engagement, Callen-Lorde has set the standard in LGBTQ+ health care since the days of Stonewall, through the early years of the AIDS crisis, up to now.”

Daskalakis joined CDC to bring his local experience to the national level, but in an environment where federal public health is failing its mission, “it’s time to go back to local,” he said in a STAT News interview .

“As long as there’s a will to destroy public health, it’s going to be really hard to fix it,” he said. “I feel more confident that my ability to help the community is best served closer to the ground.”