This week, President Donald Trump announced Susan Monarez will be his nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the CDC goes through a period of transition under the new administration.

Introducing her on Tuesday, Trump called her a “dedicated public servant,” who will “prioritize accountability, high standards, and disease prevention.”

But who is the relatively unknown, unconvential pick? Here's what we know. 

“Susan is an expert in public health and really a long history of being driven by data. She’s not dogmatic. She doesn’t come to issues with any preconceived notions. She lets the evidence guide her,” Brown University Pandemic Center director Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo told Spectrum News.

Monarez was serving as the CDC's acting director when Trump nominated her to stay on the job permanently. Earlier this month Trump abruptly pulled his initial nominee for CDC director, Dr. Dave Weldon, a former congressman and a vaccine skeptic.

Sources told Spectrum News Weldon didn't have the votes to win Senate confirmation.

Now the president has nominated Monarez to lead the agency the same week the Associated Press reported at least five more high-level officials departed. That means close to a third of the agency’s top management is leaving or recently left.

Monarez's background is not typical for CDC directors. She has a doctorate in microbology and immunology, but she’s not a physician. She would be the first CDC director in more than 70 years without a medical degree.

“I did think that was…important criteria. But she checks a lot of the other boxes,” said American Public Health Association executive director Dr. Georges Benjamin.

Prior to leading the CDC in an acting capacity, Monarez has worked in several federal agencies, most recently focused on the ethical use of artificial intelligence to support improved health outcomes at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. She has also previously at the White House in the Office of Science and Technology Policy and on the National Security Council.

Nuzzo knows Monarez and said she’s a good fit for the CDC, an agency facing reductions in staff.

“I think it’s really important for trust in any administration, including the Trump administration, that the CDC is able to do its job as driven by the evidence, free of political interference,” Nuzzo told Spectrum News.

The CDC falls under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who’s been criticized for his longstanding opposition to vaccines and promotion of misinformation relating to health. 

“What I’m hoping she’ll be able to do is smooth out his predilection to not support vaccine preventable diseases and make a strong case that vaccine preventable diseases are something we need to implement,” Benjamin said.  

If confirmed, Monarez would not only lead an agency the Trump Administration may try and further scale back, but she’ll also face numerous health challenges, including growing outbreaks of the bird flu and measles.

Also on Tuesday, former CDC director of communications Kevin Griffis, who departed last week, wrote in a Washington Post editorial that despite multiple disease outbreaks the CDC hasn’t held a public briefing since Trump’s inauguration.

Monarez’s Senate confirmation hearing hasn’t been announced yet.