Record holder for shortest tenure as Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was the shortest in the offices history.
Director of the Centers for Disease Control
July 17, 2017 – Jan. 31, 2018
Immediately upon taking the office, Fitzgerald took the impressively reprehensible step of purchasing shares in a tobacco company – a company whose industry she was then, as head of the CDC, tasked with regulating, and whose business model is the very antithesis of the agency’s mission.
Brenda Cote Fitzgerald | ProPublica: Trump Town
Notables
- Within a month of assuming role at the head of the CDC, Fitzgerald purchased shares in a Japan Tobacco.
CDC director traded tobacco stock while leading anti-smoking efforts | POLITICO (1.30.18)
- Resigned one day after POLITICO reported that she had invested in tobacco company stock while head of the agency.
CDC head resigns after report she traded tobacco stocks | The Hill (1.31.18)
- Financial disclosures reveal a portfolio of healthcare, pharmaceutical, food and tobacco companies and investment funds. The volume of potential and actual conflicts of interest forced Fitzgerald to recuse herself from several cancer and opioid related matters – matters which would otherwise be significant part of her role as director of the CDC.
New CDC head faces questions about financial conflicts of interest | Washington Post (12.11.17)
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