Episode #455 No Longer Silent, With Elizabeth Soda, MD
- May 5
- 4 min read
On This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
When Silence Becomes a Risk
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.
A Career Built on Purpose
Elizabeth's path into public health began not in a classroom but at the bedside. As a hospital-based infectious disease doctor, she found herself drawn to the bigger picture during the West Africa Ebola outbreak, ultimately leading her to apply to CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) in 2011. What followed was a career that took her from investigating antimicrobial-resistant organisms across the US and abroad, to outbreak response involving Legionella, COVID-19, and Ebola in Uganda, to immigrant and refugee health. CDC was, by her own account, her dream forever job.
The Moment That Changed Everything
This episode does not shy away from the weight of recent public health history. Elizabeth describes what it felt like to watch the culture of an agency she loved shift around her, the political pressures that made her ongoing work feel increasingly untenable, and how the August 2025 shooting became the catalyst that moved her from quiet resistance to vocal advocacy. Her story is a compelling and humanizing window into an experience shared by hundreds of public health professionals navigating impossible choices right now.
Finding Community and Channeling Action
After resigning, Elizabeth became deeply involved with the National Public Health Coalition (NPHC), a grassroots organization founded by federal workers fired from their positions. She has shepherded congressional letters with over a thousand signatories, testified on Capitol Hill, and used her platform to humanize the federal public health workforce. She also speaks candidly with Dr. Huntley about the emotional toll of this chapter: the guilt, the grief, the unexpected community, and the surprising relief of stepping away from a situation she had not fully realized was affecting her health.
This is a conversation about advocacy, resilience, self-care, and staying anchored to your North Star even when the road feels crushing. If you have been following the public health workforce crisis, or if you are living it, this episode is for you.
About Our Guest
Elizabeth Soda, MD
Dr. Elizabeth Soda is an infectious disease physician and former CDC epidemiologist who served at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2011 through September 2025. She completed CDC's prestigious Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) training program and went on to hold multiple roles within the agency, including work in antimicrobial resistance, outbreak investigations across the United States and internationally, and immigrant and refugee health. Since her resignation, Elizabeth has relocated to Northern Italy with her family and continues her public health advocacy through the National Public Health Coalition (NPHC), a grassroots organization committed to educating the public about public health and advocating for evidence-based public health systems.
Listen To This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
Conversation Highlights
Humanizing the public health workforce is an act of protection.Â
Elizabeth argues that the invisibility of public health workers has allowed a harmful narrative to take hold unchallenged. When the workforce has no face and no voice, it becomes easier to erase.
Finding community is not optional right now, it is essential.Â
Both Elizabeth and Dr. Huntley emphasize that the public health community has been under sustained pressure since COVID, with little relief. Intentionally building and leaning into community is what sustains professionals through periods of crisis.
Channeling anger into action is a form of self-care.Â
Rather than letting frustration become destructive, Elizabeth found that doing something concrete, whether drafting congressional letters, going to Capitol Hill, or speaking to press, helped her process the experience and feel a sense of agency.
You may not realize how much a high-stress environment is affecting you until you leave it.Â
Elizabeth reflects honestly on not fully understanding how poorly she was doing until she stepped away. This is a powerful reminder for professionals currently in demanding roles to pay attention to their own wellbeing.
Community buy-in is a public health strategy.Â
Dr. Huntley and Elizabeth agree that when the broader public deeply understands what public health does, it becomes harder to dismantle. Communicating public health in plain language at the community level is both an advocacy and a protection strategy.
Your North Star matters more than ever in uncertain times.Â
Elizabeth's closing message to public health students and early-career professionals is to know what they believe in, stand by it, and stick with the work because the next generation of leaders will be needed to rebuild.
"Find what is your North Star and stick by it. The work we do is so critical." — Elizabeth Soda, MD
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DrCHHuntley LLC is a public health consulting firm that specializes in epidemiology consulting, supporting large nonprofit organizations in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida that serve Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We also provide nationwide public health consulting and epidemiology consulting support to BIPOC organizations across the United States.