On October 4, 2016 he was appointed dean of the University of Maryland, College Park School of Public Health, effective January 9, 2017.

[2] Starting out in the Epidemic Intelligence Service in 1988, Lushniak spent the next 16 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working on assignments in Russia, Kosovo and Bangladesh.

Lushniak "has not been confirmed, and lacks the authority to actively pursue a public health agenda for the nation" per New England Journal of Medicine Editors-in-Chief and executive editor in October 2014, who stated also: "We have heard little from him during the Ebola outbreak".

[5] The Washington Post wrote, that he has kept a low profile during the Ebola crisis, deferring to CDC Director Tom Frieden to speak publicly to educate and reassure the people.

[6] Yet CBS News quoted Lawrence Gostin, director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, and Michael Leavitt saying that a surgeon general would probably not be an effective leader in the fight against Ebola.