Dr. Susan Monarez

All of them were, this is one of the most inspired organizations.

Every single person wants to contribute.

But what I also found so interesting is they all saw opportunities for innovation, which you know is what I love.

They would all say, you know, if we could do things differently, if we could do this, if we had better data, if we had different tools, if we had, you know, this different approach or that different approach.

We could do things faster.

We could do things less expensive so we could put resources in other places.

We could make greater contributions geographically or demographically.

And those first four days were so amazing.

And I was so elated.

And even that morning on August 8th, I met with all the new EIS officers.

And this is a group of, I don't know, maybe 200 young people who they joined the CDC and the EAS group, the Epidemiological Intelligence Service group.

And they deploy all over the world, across the country and around the world.

And these folks are so smart and so talented, they could work anywhere.

And they choose to come work at CDC because they want to make this extraordinary contribution.

And so I spent the morning with that group.

And then, you know, later that afternoon, I actually, I left for the airport.

My kids are still up in D.C.

and I was going to come up and see them for the weekend.

And it was just the greatest.

I left with such a warm and enthusiastic just feeling.