Dr. Allison Arwady takes job with CDC, will work to curb overdoses, suicides

Dr. Allison Arwady, the public health commissioner who led Chicago through the COVID-19 pandemic and then was fired by Mayor Brandon Johnson, has been hired by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help fight the crisis of overdoses and suicides.

Arwady, 47, will start as the director of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control on Jan. 16.

Drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans 18 to 45. Arwady called the drug deaths and suicides preventable tragedies that have created a public health crisis.

“When I was thinking about what to do next, I liked the idea of doing something quite different,” Arwady said Thursday. “These are the biggest issues right now.”

An infectious diseases expert, Arwady previously worked for the CDC for two years as an epidemiologist before joining the city of Chicago’s public health agency.

She was promoted to commissioner of the agency by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot in June 2019 and became the public face of the government’s COVID response in Chicago the following year.

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The Yale-educated pediatrician will work primarily in Atlanta but said she plans to keep a residence in Chicago.

Calling Chicago her “long-term home,” she said she hopes to see patients at a community health clinic and lead architectural tours in the city when she has time.

“I didn’t want to just pick up and be a commissioner in a different state or a different city,” she said.

Arwady said she misses her old job — which hasn’t been filled with a full-time replacement — but “respects the mayor’s decision” to choose another health commissioner.

Johnson fired Arwady on a Friday night in August after she had been lobbying to keep her job.

“Public health remains my passion,” Arwady tweeted Aug. 11, a short time after Johnson forced her out. “I am dedicated to continuing this work even if I am not able to continue to serve the city I love as your commissioner.”

Arwady was lauded by a number of doctors and public health experts for her job steering the city through the pandemic.

Her role enforcing Lightfoot’s policies led to a clash with the Chicago Teachers Union — a key ally of Johnson — over when students could safely return to classes.

She also was at odds with some community organizations over the city’s approach to treating mental health. Some groups pushed to reopen city-run clinics that were closed by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

As health commissioner, she oversaw environmental enforcement and permitting and found herself at the center of a storm of protest over the proposed relocation of the General Iron scrap metal operation from Lincoln Park to the Southeast Side. Her decision to deny the business from opening at East 116th Street and the Calumet River is still being challenged by the business’ owner.