Dr. Erica Schwartz has emerged as the White House's top pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to current and former officials. 

Schwartz, a Coast Guard rear admiral, served as deputy Surgeon General in the first Trump administration.

Schwartz spent 24 years in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. 

She is a graduate of Brown University's medical school and has a law degree from the University of Maryland.

The previous CDC director, Susan Monarez, was ousted from the role in August, just weeks after being confirmed, following clashes with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

In recent months, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health, oversaw the CDC on an acting basis. 

At a staff meeting in March, Bhattacharya acknowledged the struggles the agency has faced over the past year, including multiple rounds of job cuts, plummeting morale, and a gunman opening fire outside the CDC's Atlanta campus, killing a police officer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report that Schwartz had become the frontrunner for CDC head.