Rochelle P. Walensky

Rochelle Walensky is an infectious disease doctor and former director of the Centers for Disease Control. She is currently an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School, a Hauser Leader at Harvard Kennedy School, and a Menschel Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She holds a BA in biochemistry and molecular biology from Washington University in St. Louis, MD from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and MPH in clinical effectiveness from the Harvard School of Public Health. Walensky completed a medical residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and an infectious disease fellowship in the Massachusetts General/Brigham and Women’s Hospital combined program. Her research focuses on infectious diseases and HIV/AIDS policy, including cost-effective strategies for HIV screening, treatment and prevention, both in the US and around the globe. Walensky served as the nineteenth director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. While at the CDC, Walensky led the nation—and the world—through an unprecedented pandemic, navigating the darkest days of COVID-19 and other infectious threats.