Dr Rochelle Walenksy, the current director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced a “reset” of the health agency. The new measure would include shuffling the internal staff of the CDC steps to speed up data releases.

Walensky said in a statement on Wednesday that she also intends to “get rid of some of the reporting layers that exist, and I’d like to work to break down some of the silos”, news agency Associated Press reported.

Also Read: US CDC reset: How will the health agency change?

Who is Rochelle Walensky?

Rochelle Walensky was born in the town of Peabody, Massachusetts, in April 1969. She is currently married to Loren Walensky, who is a pediatric oncologist at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. The couple has three children.

Rochelle Walensky pursued biochemistry and molecular biology at Washington University. She then went on to complete her M.D. at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Walensky gained expertise in the testing and treatment of deadly viruses. This enabled her to become one of the top scholars to research the spread of HIV/AIDS. Before being appointed as the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by US President Joe Biden, Walensky had worked with top infectious disease institutions in the country.

Walensky was a professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School between 2012 and 2020. During this period Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Also Read: Nearly 3 decades later, is America ready to meet the polio challenge?

She has also been part of various national and international government-based health agencies. She was the former head of the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council at the National Institutes of Health and the Chair-elect of the HIV Medical Association.

Walensky also briefly served as an advisor to the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, according to the CDC’s website.