Brannon Traxler, MD, MPH, currently serves as director of Health Promotion and Services & Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC). In this capacity, she provides strategic direction for public health, leading its more than 2,000 public health employees. She ensures the delivery of appropriate, timely and quality services at DHEC’s 74 public health service sites, located in every county in the state. She also oversees the statewide efforts related to chronic disease and injury prevention, communicable disease prevention and control, community health, community nutrition, COVID-19 coordination, maternal and child health, and public health preparedness, as well as the state's public health laboratory.

A native of Greenville, SC, Dr. Traxler most recently served as the Chief Medical Officer for the state’s COVID-19 response. She is trained and board certified in general surgery and previously practiced as a surgeon in South Carolina before changing her specialty focus to public health. Traxler completed residency in general surgery at Greenville Health System in Greenville, SC and fellowship in breast surgery at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. 

Traxler earned her medical degree from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine and her Master of Public Health degree from George Washington University. She received her undergraduate degree in microbiology at the Clemson University Honors College. In Spring 2022, Traxler was recognized for her leadership and dedication to public health as one of The State's 20 under 40 and became a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society.