Rochelle Walensky & Elizabeth Cohen

Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH's Biography

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the former chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, was named the 19th director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). She graduated high school from Winston Churchill High School in 1987 and in 1991, she received a B.A. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Washington University in St. Louis.

In 1995, Walensky received an M.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and also trained in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1995 to 1998.

She later became a fellow in the Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women’s Hospital Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program.

In 2001, Walensky earned an MPH in clinical effectiveness from the Harvard School of Public Health.

She has worked to improve HIV screening and care in South Africa, led health policy initiatives, and researched clinical trial design and evaluation in a variety of settings

Walensky had been on the faculty of Harvard Medical School since 2001, first as an instructor and later worked as a professor.

She was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2012 to 2020 and served as chief of the division of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2017 to 2020.

Walensky was chair of the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council at the National Institutes of Health from 2014 to 2015.

She has also been a member of the US Department of Health and Human Services Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents since 2011.

Walensky was co-director of the Medical Practice Evaluation Center at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2011-2020.

On December 7, 2020, during the presidential transition, President-elect Joe Biden announced Walensky’s presumptive appointment as CDC director.

As the position of director of the CDC does not require Senate confirmation to take office, Walensky’s tenure at the CDC began on January 20, 2021.

Walensky became the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Elizabeth Cohen's Biography

Elizabeth Cohen is senior medical correspondent for CNN's Health, Medical and Wellness unit, reporting breaking medical news and health consumer reporting on CNN and CNN.com. Her signature digital column, Empowered Patient, keeps consumers informed on how to ensure the best medical care for themselves and their families. She has a masters degree in public health and is the author of THE EMPOWERED PATIENT: How to get the Right Diagnosis, Buy the Cheapest Drugs, Beat Your Insurance Company, and Get the Best Medical Care Every Time.

Also in 2010, Cohen provided viewers with on-the-scene accounts of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the devastating Haitian earthquake in January. Cohen's reporting included a whistleblower exclusive with a fisherman's wife who was among the first to speak out about the health concerns of fishermen now working for BP as clean-up workers. In Haiti, Cohen reported from a makeshift hospital, bringing insights to the injury triage, the complications of transporting critical patients to the U.S., and the lack of medical infrastructure and resources. In 2011, she contributed follow-up reporting on relocated earthquake survivors. In 2014, Cohen traveled to Liberia to report on the Ebola outbreak.

Cohen's field reporting has also included coverage of the Virginia Tech student shootings, adding clarity to the global response to H1N1 influenza, and from Peru on medical researchers researching female hormone botanicals.

Cohen reported on the aftermath of the destruction of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, contributing to CNN's Peabody and EMMY® Award-winning coverage through stories about airlifts of premature babies from flooded neonatal intensive care units and reports on displaced cancer patients in desperate need of treatment. She contributed to CNN's EMMY® Award-winning coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, reporting with sensitivity and professionalism on the rescue and recovery at Ground Zero and the search for missing people in lower Manhattan. She has reported for four primetime specials for CNN.

Cohen received a Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists and a National Headliner Award in 2006 for "A Lesson Before Dying," a feature on the medical decisions made by a Georgia man at the end of his life. In 2007, Cohen was honored by the Newswomen's Club of New York and the New York Association of Black Journalists for the feature African-Americans and Bone Marrow Transplants. The Mental Health America Media Awards honored her in 2007 for Perfection Obsession, a feature focusing on a teen's battle against obsessive-compulsive disorder. In 2008, Cohen received a Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television for “Where's Molly?”, a feature on a man's search for his sister nearly 50 years after she was placed in a residential mental health institution.

Before joining CNN in 1991, Elizabeth was associate producer of Green Watch, an environmental television program on WLVI in Boston, a reporter for States News Service in Washington, D.C., and a reporter for the The Times Union newspaper in Albany, N.Y., where she won a Hearst Award.

Cohen is the recipient of the outstanding alumna award from Columbia College in New York City, where she received a bachelor's degree in history, and the Distinguished Alumni Award at Boston University where she earned a master's degree in public health.