30% Of CDC's Workforce Is GONE! The Doctor Who Resigned Explains it ALL!

For four months, the CDC's most senior career leader worked out of an empty office. She had cleared it out in April, during a measles outbreak, after she refused to put medications that weren't warranted on an agency toolkit, because she thought each day could be her last.

Dr. Debra Houry spent 11 years at the CDC and served as its Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science. On August 27, 2025, after CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez was fired, she resigned alongside two center directors and chose to go public. On Inspiring Women, Laurie McGraw talks with her about that decision, the state of the CDC today, and why she is still optimistic about public health.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

- Why she chose to resign publicly instead of leaving quietly

- "My job was actually not to protect my job, but to protect the American public and the agency"

- The pushes on hepatitis B vaccine advice, measles treatments and the COVID vaccine pages that led her to say "I can't change science"

- What it means that 30% of CDC's workforce is gone

- Why about 19 political appointees at the CDC is a big change from the usual one to three

- How she started national drug overdose, suicide and firearm violence prevention work at the CDC, across administrations

- Where to get health information now, from Dr. Google to Dr. ChatGPT

- Why she is not sure the agency will still be called CDC

- How regional state alliances, universities and medical societies are filling the gap

- Her advice for women leaders: be authentic, step up and speak up

ABOUT THE GUEST

Dr. Debra Houry is a physician executive, emergency medicine doctor and public health leader. She was the Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and earlier ran its National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Today she works with California's innovation institute on bringing technology and AI into public health, advises the West Coast Health Alliance, teaches part-time at Yale and advises health tech and AI companies. Her book on leading through crisis comes out next year.

ABOUT THE SHOW

Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw features conversations with women leaders in health, technology and business.

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