Dr. Sarah DeGue Creates a New Path
Violence does not end when the government ignores it.
While finishing her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, Dr. Sarah DeGue thought she would go into research and maybe private practice. Instead, Sarah was called to public service by the appeal of stopping violence before it starts, and she spent the next 17 years doing just that at the CDC's Division of Violence Prevention, Research and Evaluation Branch. For the last 10 years, Sarah also served as a Senior Scientist and Director of CDC’s Dating Matters teen dating violence prevention initiative. Sarah used her expertise to educate communities and employed a public health approach to prevent violence in the United States, including mass violence, ideological violence, and hate crimes.
In April 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services eliminated 10,000 employees through Reduction in Force (RIF) and nearly wiped out the CDC's entire Division of Violence Prevention. The United States lost a wealth of knowledge in the public health space. Through the elimination of these jobs and the removal of research from the public domain, over 40 years of research in violence prevention was effectively destroyed—a loss that could take a decade to rebuild. Sarah never thought it possible that she and so many of her colleagues would be forced to leave government, but that's exactly what happened.
Still reeling from the RIFs, Sarah worried about what would happen in the violence prevention space through the dramatic loss of resources. True to her calling, Sarah created Violence Prevention Solutions, LLC, as a space for her former colleagues to maintain expertise and rebuild. Violence Prevention Solutions is reinventing and evolving to make resources more stable while no longer relying on the government or non-profit sector.
During her last years at the CDC, Sarah also worked with the Department of Homeland Security to develop public health approaches to prevent targeted violence and domestic terrorism, but that work is no longer continuing due to the cuts at the CDC. Sarah worries about the lack of prevention at a critical moment in time, villainization of LGBTQ+ communities, and misinformation surrounding the overstated threat of leftist ideology.
In the aftermath of the August 2025 CDC shootings, Sarah was appalled as HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., visited the CDC campus in Atlanta and blamed CDC employees for bringing the shooting upon themselves. After briefly granting CDC employees an opportunity to telework, they were required to return to office and continue working from bullet-riddled offices. Employees were left without mental health services and took it upon themselves to provide their own.
Read what Sarah had to say about the CDC shooting on her blog.
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn or learn more about Violence Prevention Solutions on their website.
After recording this episode, we became aware of a report produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies which included numerous analytic tradecraft failures and was widely cited as evidence of a rapidly growing trend in left-wing terrorism and a diminishing threat of right-wing terrorism.
This section is solely the author's commentary and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Dr. Degue.
The CDC Shooting: State-Validated Extremism
In the months after the RIFs struck the CDC, its workforce existed in a climate of hostility. As HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. villainized the CDC and systematically dismantled public health programs, he provided institutional validation to domestic violent extremists' fringe anti-vax ideologies, drawing them deeper into the fold of far-right anti-government extremism.
This convergence culminated on August 8, 2025, when Patrick Joseph White committed a premeditated act of ideologically-motivated, grievance-fueled violence by firing hundreds of rounds into buildings on the CDC campus and killing DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose before also taking his own life. White is the archetype of lone offender, grievance-fueled violent extremism in 2025. Mainstream political ideology championed by state actors gave his grievance political purpose, which channeled his suicidal ideations into his goal of making the public aware of his target's perceived transgressions.
Notably, White's act of terrorism was unaddressed by the White House, ignored by extremism researchers, and only briefly covered by the media when compared with other politically motivated acts of violence in 2025. For example, a September 2025 CSIS report claiming to provide a comparative analysis of left- and right-wing terrorism in 2025, made repeated reference to the assassination of a far-right activist that had taken place only two weeks earlier, while omitting any reference to the CDC shooting. Meanwhile, a response published on the Just Security blog attempted to highlight some of the failures of the CSIS report, but also fell short in recognizing the CDC shooting (and other notable incidents) as an act of politically motivated violence.
Perhaps most concerning of all, when asked about domestic extremist threats stemming from misinformation about the CDC and vaccines, FBI Atlanta Special Agent-in-Charge Paul Brown claimed the FBI had not seen an uptick. SAC Brown's comments indicate a fundamental lack of understanding of the shifting threat landscape with respect to far-right anti-government grievances as a component of extremist mobilization to violence. The FBI must more intensely scrutinize the intrinsic relationship between extremists' grievances and political ideologies, while also accounting for novel motivators, such as validation of extremist grievances by government officials.
Lastly, institutional failures to muster an adequate response to the CDC shooting risk a further chilling effect on what remains of the CDC workforce. Kennedy continues to mock the CDC, while its personnel risk further threats of violence when considering simple decisions, such as going to work or putting their name on published works.
If you enjoy Forking Off with us, consider supporting us on Ko-fi, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, LinkedIn, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Check out Violence Prevention Solutions, LLC.
CDC
Learn more about the public health approach to violence prevention.
Learn more about the Dating Matters toolkit and how to promote healthy teen relationships.
Kiera Butler
Read more about the RIFs at CDC.
Dr. Sarah DeGue
Read Sarah's blogpost about the shooting at the CDC.
