Chris Klomp and the high-stakes search for a new CDC chief

At first glance, it’s a plum job that touches the lives of every American: director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, running the sprawling agency whose mission is to protect public health.

Yet finding the right candidate is another matter. Over the last year, President Trump has struggled to fill the role. It is temporarily being filled on an acting basis by Jay Bhattacharya, whose day job is leading the National Institutes of Health. To finally come up with a stable leader, Trump and health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have dispatched Chris Klomp, a rising star at the Health and Human Services Department, to run the job search. 

“I’m very focused on that in this new role,” Klomp said at the STAT Breakthrough Summit East in New York on Thursday.  “And that is my directive from the secretary and from the White House directly.”