President-elect Joe Biden announced key nominations and appointments for his health team. These include California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, JD, for the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services, according to a press release.
Becerra, who also served 12 terms in Congress, and led the defense of the Affordable Care Act before the Supreme Court last month, according to a press release
Other nominations and appointments are as follows:
· Vivek Murthy, MD, Surgeon General. Murphy was confirmed by the Senate in 2014 to serve as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States and currently serves as co-chair of President-elect Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board.
· Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Walensky’s professional expertise includes virus testing, prevention and treatment. She is the Chief of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
· Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS, Chair of the COVID-19 Equity Task Force. Nunez-Smith is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Management at the Yale School of Medicine. She also is the founding director of Yale’s Equity Research and Innovation Center and Co-chair of President-elect Biden's COVID-19 Transition Advisory Board.
· Anthony Fauci, MD, Chief Medical Adviser to the President on COVID-19, who will also continue in his role as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
· Jeff Zients, Coordinator of the COVID-19 Response and Counselor to the President. Zients, a business executive, previously provided leadership in 2013 for the rollout of the national electronic healthcare insurance exchange, HealthCare.gov.
· Natalie Quillian, Deputy Coordinator of the COVID-19 Response. Quillian is a former White House and Pentagon senior advisor and played a role in coordinating the Obama-Biden administration’s interagency response to the opioid epidemic.
