Rochelle Walensky facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rochelle Walensky
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Official portrait, 2021
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| 19th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | |
| In office January 20, 2021 – June 30, 2023 |
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| President | Joe Biden |
| Deputy | Anne Schuchat Debra Houry (acting) Nirav D. Shah |
| Preceded by | Robert Redfield |
| Succeeded by | Mandy Cohen |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Rochelle Paula Bersoff
April 5, 1969 Peabody, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Spouse |
Loren D. Walensky
(m. 1995) |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent | Edward H. Bersoff (father) |
| Education | Washington University in St. Louis (BA) Johns Hopkins University (MD) Harvard University (MPH) |
Rochelle Paula Walensky (born April 5, 1969) is an American doctor and scientist. She is best known for serving as the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 2021 to 2023. The CDC is a major government agency that works to protect the country from health threats.
While leading the CDC, she also ran the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. This agency deals with the health effects of dangerous materials. On May 5, 2023, she announced she would be leaving her role, and her last day was June 30, 2023.
Before working for the government, Dr. Walensky was a professor at Harvard Medical School and the chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is an expert on diseases like HIV/AIDS.
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Early Life and Schooling
Rochelle Paula Bersoff was born in Peabody, Massachusetts. Her parents were Edward Bersoff and Carol Bersoff-Bernstein. She grew up in Potomac, Maryland, and graduated from Winston Churchill High School in 1987.
Walensky was a dedicated student. She earned a degree in biochemistry from Washington University in St. Louis in 1991. In 1995, she became a medical doctor after graduating from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
After medical school, she trained to be a doctor specializing in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She then studied infectious diseases at two famous hospitals in Boston. In 2001, she earned a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University. This degree helped her understand health issues that affect large groups of people.
Career as a Doctor and Professor
Dr. Walensky began teaching at Harvard Medical School in 2001. She worked her way up and became a full professor in 2012. From 2017 to 2020, she was in charge of the infectious diseases department at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Her research focused on finding the best ways to provide care for people with HIV, both in the United States and around the world. She studied how to improve HIV testing and treatment in places like South Africa. She has written over 300 scientific papers and is a respected expert in her field.
Dr. Walensky also served on important health committees. She was the head of a council for AIDS research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She also helped create guidelines for treating adults and teenagers with HIV. In 2021, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, a great honor for a doctor.
After leaving the CDC, she returned to Harvard to teach at the law school and the Kennedy School. She also serves on the boards of The Carter Center and the Doris Duke Foundation, which are groups that work to improve people's lives.
Work on COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Walensky was one of many scientists who signed the John Snow Memorandum. This was a statement that disagreed with the idea of letting the virus spread to achieve herd immunity.
Before vaccines were available, she studied how regular testing could help colleges reopen safely. She also researched the best ways to deliver vaccines to communities that needed them most. In a 2020 article, she explained that a vaccine's success would depend on:
- How quickly it could be made and given to people.
- How many people were willing to get vaccinated.
- How widespread the virus was when the vaccine became available.
Director of the CDC
On December 7, 2020, President-elect Joe Biden chose Dr. Walensky to be the next director of the CDC. Many doctors and health experts were happy with this choice. She started her new job on January 20, 2021.
One of her first challenges was guiding the country through the later stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. As new versions of the virus, like the Omicron variant, appeared, the CDC's job became very difficult. Dr. Walensky admitted that her team was tired from working so hard for so long.
Challenges and Criticisms
Leading the CDC during a pandemic was not easy. Some people criticized Dr. Walensky and the CDC. They said the agency's advice on things like masks, quarantines, and reopening schools was sometimes confusing.
For example, the CDC changed its advice on how long people with COVID-19 should stay home. The new rule said five days instead of ten, which some medical groups disagreed with. Dr. Walensky explained that these decisions were made with the best information available at the time, even if it wasn't perfect. She said that clear messages like "Wear a mask" were simple, but many people still didn't follow them.
In April 2022, Dr. Walensky announced that the CDC would be reviewed by outside experts. She wanted to see how the agency could improve. Later that year, she said the CDC needed to change to respond faster to future health crises.
On May 5, 2023, Dr. Walensky announced she was resigning from the CDC. Her departure came as the national health emergency for COVID-19 was ending.
Personal Life
Dr. Walensky is married to Loren D. Walensky, who is also a doctor and a scientist. They have three sons. The family is Jewish and lives in Newton, Massachusetts.
Selected works and publications
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