Mandy Cohen, who led NC’s coronavirus response, likely to be Biden’s next CDC leader

Dr. Mandy Cohen, who led North Carolina’s public health response to the coronavirus pandemic, could become a national health leader in President Joe Biden’s administration.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Cohen is Biden’s pick for head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cohen was secretary of N.C. Department of Health and Human Services before stepping down about a year and a half ago to go into the private sector.

A source familiar with the matter told McClatchy that the decision is not final, as Cohen still must complete paperwork for the role. But the president chose Cohen because of her experience as an executive at the federal level while serving as a senior advisor and chief of staff at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, as well as at the local level throughout the coronavirus pandemic in North Carolina.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said Thursday that Cohen would be a “fantastic” CDC director.

“Mandy Cohen used a steady hand to help my administration lead North Carolina through the pandemic to be among the states with the lowest deaths and job losses per capita.”

“She is a brilliant, talented and battle tested leader who would be a fantastic CDC Director,” Cooper said in a statement to The News & Observer.

Cohen would replace Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who announced in May that she would leave office at the end of June.

Cohen led COVID-19 response with Cooper

Cohen ushered the state through the COVID-19 response, standing alongside Cooper for regular media briefings in 2020 and 2021 as they talked about the latest number of cases and restrictions. North Carolina closed and put restrictions on in-person schools, restaurants, gyms, bars, sports and entertainment venues, playgrounds, public spaces and businesses for many months as they navigated the pandemic.

Cohen was known for repeatedly urging North Carolinians to follow the “three Ws” of wearing a mask, waiting six feet apart from each other and washing their hands to control the spread of COVID-19. As vaccinations became available, she gave updates on who would be eligible as each wave of vaccine distribution carried through the state.

Cooper’s state of emergency lasted for more than two years, with a continuous issuing of executive orders that both eased and imposed restrictions.

Cohen announced she was leaving her job at N.C. DHHS at the end of 2021 to go into the private sector as executive vice president of Aledade, a health IT company, and the chief executive officer of its new health services unit, Aledade Care Solutions.

Cohen went to Cornell, Yale and Harvard universities and spent 15 years in the public sector, including working in the Obama administration as chief operating officer and chief of staff at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, before coming to North Carolina. She spent five years leading N.C. DHHS.

Cohen, an internal medicine physician, said then she would stay in Raleigh for her new job. In one recent public appearance, she watched the bill signing for Medicaid expansion held in April at the Executive Mansion. Cohen had long pushed for expanding Medicaid, which is predicated on the North Carolina state budget becoming law this summer.

Cohen has not responded to a message from The N&O asking her if she could confirm the appointment.