Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, has served as the 19th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021–2023); Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (2012–2021 and 2025-present); and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital (2017–2021). Dr. Walensky is an infectious disease clinician whose research career is guided by a belief that the clinical and economic outcomes of medical decisions can be improved through the explicit articulation of choices, systematic assembly of evidence, and careful assessment of comparative costs and benefits. Her groundbreaking work and over 300 research publications have motivated changes to U.S. HIV testing and immigration policy; promoted expanded funding for HIV-related research, treatment, and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief; and led to policy revisions toward aggressive HIV screening—especially for the underserved—and earlier treatment in resource-limited international settings. Dr. Walensky has been an active member of policy discussions at the World Health Organization, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HIV Guidelines Committee, and National Institutes of Health Office of AIDS Research.
Dr. Walensky served on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts until beginning her tenure at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on January 20, 2021. While at CDC, she navigated the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, participated in nearly 100 press conferences and countless media appearances and provided testimony at 17 Congressional hearings.
Dr. Walensky is a member of the American Academy of Physicians, National Academy of Medicine, and Council on Foreign Relations. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees at the Doris Duke Foundation and The Carter Center.
Dr. Walensky received her BA from Washington University in St. Louis (1991), her MD from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (1995), and her MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2001. She completed her internal medicine residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital (1995–1998) and her infectious disease fellowship at the Massachusetts General/Brigham and Women’s Hospital combined program (1998–2001). She is married to Loren Walensky, MD, PhD, a physician–scientist and pediatric oncologist at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children’s Hospital. They have 3 sons.