PHEC 455: No Longer Silent, With Elizabeth Soda, MD

What does it take to break your silence in the middle of a public health crisis? For Dr. Elizabeth Soda, the answer came on an ordinary August afternoon when a gunman opened fire on CDC headquarters. She had left the campus just 30 minutes before the shooting began. That moment, she says, changed everything.

In this episode, Dr. Huntley sits down with Elizabeth Soda, MD, an infectious disease physician and former CDC epidemiologist who resigned from the agency in September 2025 after more than a decade of landmark public health work. Elizabeth speaks openly about what life inside CDC felt like and how dramatically that changed, the personal and professional reckoning that led to her resignation, and how she is channeling grief, anger, and passion into advocacy on a global stage.

 

Resources

▶️ Join the PHEC Podcast Community

▶️ Visit the PHEC Podcast Show Notes

▶️ DrCHHuntley, Public Health & Epidemiology Consulting