Biden taps Mandy Cohen as new director of CDC

U.S. President Joe Biden said on June 16 that he intends to name Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A congregant at the Conservative Beth Meyer Synagogue in Raleigh, N.C., Cohen would replace another Jewish woman, Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

Cohen told the Religion News Service that she has received “only positive reactions” to the necklace she wears with a Hebrew chai (“life”) charm.

She also told the wire service that her medical work aligns with “Jewish values of healing the world.”