New CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen Has Long Island Roots

LONG ISLAND, NY — The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and prevention has Long Island roots — and has been making waves since she was awarded a Baldwin Foundation for Education scholarship as a new high school graduate in 1996, Newsday reported.

Dr. Mandy Cohen, then known as Mandy Krauthamer, graduated with high honors at Baldwin Senior High School and left her mark on the community early in life as an AIDS peer educator and hospital volunteer, according to the outlet.

Cohen also had interests outside of healthcare. Speaking to Newsday, Mindy Edwards, a retired music teacher from Glen Cove, described Cohen as a "fabulous musician" who sang in the choir and played violin in the orchestra.

"Mandy was one of the special ones that I’ll always remember," Edwards told the outlet. "Talented, very bright. … Just an all-around fabulous young lady."

After President Biden announced his plans to appoint Cohen Friday, the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky said in a statement that she "can think of no better hands in which to leave this agency during a critical time in its history."

"Dr. Cohen is a respected public health leader who helped North Carolina successfully navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and has dedicated her career to improving health outcomes for all Americans," Walensky added. "Her unique experience and accomplished tenure in North Carolina – along with her other career contributions – make her perfectly suited to lead CDC as it moves forward by building on the lessons learned from COVID-19 to create an organization poised to meet public health challenges of the future."

According to the White House, Cohen graduated from Cornell University and received her medical degree from Yale School of Medicine and a Master’s in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health and has been serving as Secretary of North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services.

She is married to Sam Cohen, a health care regulatory attorney, and they have two daughters.