Newly installed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Erica Schwartz said she wants to change a culture of "paternalism" at her agency.

Americans need to be better informed about how and why the CDC makes its recommendations, and the agency needs to be willing to listen to people's concerns, she said.

"There is a sense of paternalism that we have had at the CDC," Schwartz said. "It shouldn't be this black box that we say, 'Verily thou shalt, and then that's the answer.'"

Schwartz made the comments Wednesday at a Wall Street Journal Future of Health event in Washington, D.C.

A former deputy surgeon general, Schwartz was confirmed by the Senate to lead the country's premier public health agency in August. The previous director, Susan Monarez, left the role after clashing with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccine policy.

Schwartz said Wednesday that parents should prioritize receiving measles vaccines for their children amid current U.S. outbreaks, saying the shot is "absolutely safe, absolutely effective." She defended the secretary, a skeptic of vaccines who has said they are a "personal decision," saying he channels concerns from parents who are wary of the full slate of childhood immunizations.

"The secretary does represent the voices of a number of Americans who are asking questions about certain vaccines," she said, adding that doctors shouldn't approach vaccine-skeptical parents with "a paternalistic way of thinking."

Schwartz also said that she and other top health leaders, including Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz and National Institutes of Health director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, debate policies in front of Kennedy, who will then make a decision on the matter at hand.

"The secretary actually wants to have a robust debate," she said.

Schwartz faces a number of challenges in her first months as director, as her agency confronts staff cuts, measles outbreaks and a potential pneumonic plague case in Russia.