Travis Hoppe is stepping down as acting chief AI officer (CAIO) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), he disclosed in a social media post.
Hoppe took on those duties in April 2025 following a three-year stint as the agency’s associate director for data science and analytics, and a term at the White House Office of Science Technology and Policy (OSTP) as assistant director of AI research and development from February 2024 to January 2025.
Earlier, he was chief data scientist at CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics from early 2020 to 2022, as well as a data scientist at the National Institutes of Health from 2016 to 2020.
“After five incredible years, I’m stepping away from CDC,” Hoppe said without indicating where his next professional stop might be. “I’ll be sharing more information soon about what comes next for me,” he pledged.
“It’s hard to put into words what it means to work at an institution whose mission is so deeply tied to the health and safety of people across the country and around the world,” he said.
“During this time, I’ve watched our AI efforts evolve in meaningful ways: from accelerating data modernization to exploring how AI can help detect outbreaks faster, surface insights from complex data, and support more responsive decision-making across public health systems,” Hoppe said.
“We were the first Federal agency to fully adopt generative AI, the first to commission a study on its return-on-investment, and the first to release considerations on Deep Research technology and provide guidance to State and local public health agencies,” he said.