Georgia health commissioner named CDC director in Atlanta

Georgia’s health commissioner has been named the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald succeeds Dr. Tom Frieden, who resigned in January at the end of the Obama administration.

Fitzgerald, 70, has been head of the Georgia Department of Public Health since 2011. She is an OB-GYN and has been prominent in a national organization of state health officials.

Her appointment Friday came from Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who is a former congressman from Georgia.

The Atlanta-based CDC is the federal government’s top public health agency. It has nearly 12,000 employees and 10,000 contractors worldwide.