It’s All About the People: Leadership in Public Health
Former CDC Chief Operating Officer Dr. Debra Lubar reflects on a year after leaving the agency, highlighting the grief and institutional instability that followed massive reduction‑in‑force layoffs affecting over 2,000 staff. She argues that rebuilding public health requires more than structural changes; it must restore trust, protect the workforce, and honor the human relationships that sustain the system. Lubar uses her platform at the Milbank Memorial Fund to call for concrete action steps, from advocacy and mentorship to supporting mutual‑aid networks for former CDC employees.
Public Health Meets the Care Economy: Care As Infrastructure
In Part 2 of her two‑part miniseries, Katie Schenk argues that public‑health agencies treat caregiving as an individual issue rather than essential infrastructure, exposing a structural mismatch that fuels inequity and attrition. She details how pandemic‑era successes turned into political liabilities,...
When There’s No Place for Silence in Science: A Personal Disclosure
Katie Schenk, a veteran public‑health epidemiologist, publicly disclosed that she recently resigned from the CDC after years of keeping her federal role hidden. She explains that growing political pressure and a widening gap between scientific evidence and agency decisions made...
You Don’t Notice Public Health Until It’s Gone: The True Costs of Cutting the Workforce - Voices #29
Emma Aston, a former CDC health communicator, details how a 2025 Reduction in Force eliminated roughly a quarter of the agency’s workforce, silencing key public‑health messaging. The cuts halted campaigns on tobacco, HIV, and flu, while new executive orders imposed...