President-elect Joe Biden Announces Key Members of Health Team

This deeply qualified, diverse team will be ready on day one to contain
the COVID pandemic; ensure the safe, free, and equitable distribution of
vaccines; make sure every American has access to affordable, quality
health care; and guard against the full range of health threats facing our
nation.

WASHINGTON – Today, President-elect Joe Biden announced key nominations and appointments of his health team, including Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services; Dr. Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General; Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, COVID-19 Equity Task Force Chair; Dr. Anthony Fauci, 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; and Jeff Zients, Coordinator of the COVID-19 Response and Counselor to the President. In addition, former
White House and Pentagon senior advisor Natalie Quillian will serve as
Deputy Coordinator of the COVID-19 Response.

This is a team that looks like America and brings together leaders with
deep experience in public health, government, and crisis management. They are experts in their fields who will restore public trust in the pandemic response by leading with facts, science, integrity, and a laser-focus on bringing COVID-19 under control. Together, they will advise
President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris on implementing a
whole-of-government response to surge testing and tracing to slow the
spread of the virus, protect frontline workers, and ensure the safe and
efficient delivery of treatments and vaccines at no cost to the American
people. And, they will help fulfill the President-elect’s vision of making
health care a right — not a privilege — for all Americans, building on the
Affordable Care Act to lower health care costs and tackle prescription
drug costs.

President-elect Joe Biden said, “This trusted and accomplished team of
leaders will bring the highest level of integrity, scientific rigor, and
crisis-management experience to one of the toughest challenges America has ever faced — getting the pandemic under control so that the American
people can get back to work, back to their lives, and back to their loved
ones. This team of world-class medical experts and public servants will be
ready on day one to mobilize every resource of the federal government to
expand testing and masking, oversee the safe, equitable, and free
distribution of treatments and vaccines, re-open schools and businesses
safely, lower prescription drug and other health costs and expand
affordable health care to all Americans, and rally the country and restore
the belief that there is nothing beyond America’s capacity if we do it
together.”

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said, “Containing this coronavirus
pandemic and opening our economy responsibly require listening to experts and leaders like the ones we are bringing together on this health care team. They are some of America’s top physicians, public health experts,
and crisis-tested public servants, and they reflect the very best of our
nation. This is the team that the American people need and deserve to make
quality, affordable health care available to all and to help make sure
safe and effective vaccines — as well as testing and treatment — are free
and equitably distributed. President-elect Biden and I will work closely
with this team to marshal the full resources and capabilities of the
United States of America to save lives, contain this pandemic, and build
better preparedness for future pandemics and other health threats.”

This diverse and experienced slate of nominations and appointments
includes some of the nation’s most accomplished problem-solving leaders in
crisis management and public health:
* Xavier Becerra, the Attorney General of California and a long-time
champion of expanding access to health care, is nominated to serve as
Secretary of Health and Human Services. A former member of Congress who helped drive passage of the Affordable Care Act, Becerra led the defense of the law in the Supreme Court last month. If confirmed, Becerra will be the first Latino to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
* Dr. Vivek Murthy, a distinguished physician, research scientist, and
former Vice Admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, is
nominated to serve as Surgeon General of the United States. He was
previously confirmed by the Senate to serve in the same capacity, holding
the post as ‘America’s Doctor’ between 2014 and 2017. A trusted national
voice on health issues and a long-time advisor to President-elect Biden,
he currently serves as co-chair of the President-elect’s COVID-19
transition Advisory Board.
* Dr. Rochelle Walensky, a leading expert on virus testing, prevention,
and treatment, is nominated to serve as Director of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. She has been on the front lines of the
COVID-19 pandemic response in Massachusetts, serving as Chief of
Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Professor of
Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
* Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, one of the country’s foremost experts on
health care disparities, will serve as the COVID-19 Equity Task Force
Chair. An Associate Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Management
at the Yale School of Medicine, she is the founding director of Yale’s
Equity Research and Innovation Center and co-chair of the
President-elect’s COVID-19 Transition Advisory Board. Dr. Nunez-Smith will
advise the President-elect on a whole-of-government effort to reduce
COVID-19 disparities in response, care, and treatment, including racial
and ethnic disparities.
* Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s preeminent expert on infectious diseases
and an adviser to six U.S. presidents, will serve as Chief Medical Adviser
on COVID-19 to the President and continue in his role as Director of the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Among the most
trusted figures in the country throughout the pandemic and for decades
prior, Dr. Fauci will remain an essential voice both in informing the
public about health risks and safety measures and in helping the
scientific community, the Biden-Harris administration, and local officials
overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.
* Jeff Zients, an accomplished public servant widely known for his
extraordinary track record successfully managing large and complex
initiatives, will serve as Coordinator of the COVID-19 Response and
Counselor to the President. Zients previously earned broad acclaim for his
leadership of the 2013 HealthCare.gov tech surge and his oversight of the
‘Cash for Clunkers’ fuel-efficiency program. Zients will advise the
president-elect on the implementation of the federal government’s COVID
response, including managing safe and equitable vaccine distribution, the
pandemic supply chain, and coordination across federal agencies and state
and local governments.
* Natalie Quillian will serve as Deputy Coordinator of the COVID-19
Response. Quillian, a national security expert and former White House and
Pentagon senior advisor, played an instrumental role in coordinating the
Obama-Biden administration’s interagency response to the opioid epidemic.

The following White House announcements were made today:

Xavier Becerra (Hahv-ee-ayr Beh-seh-rah) currently serves as the 33rd
Attorney General of California, the first Latino to hold the position in
the 171 years of its existence. As the leader of the nation’s largest
state-level Department of Justice, his work has focused on protecting
underserved communities and fighting to safeguard the health and wellbeing
of all Californians; in November 2020, he led the defense of the
Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court on behalf of twenty states and
the District of Columbia.

Prior to his tenure as Attorney General, Becerra served twelve terms as a
member of the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming a key fixture of the
Committee on Ways and Means, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Social
Security, and, ultimately, Chair of the House Democratic Caucus. The son
of working-class parents who was the first member of his family to
graduate from college, Becerra started his career as a legal aid attorney
supporting clients contending with mental health issues before becoming a
Deputy Attorney General in the California Department of Justice and
serving one term in the State Assembly. Originally from Sacramento,
Becerra received his bachelor of arts degree from Stanford and his JD from
Stanford Law School.

Dr. Vivek Murthy (Viv-ake Mur-thee) 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 the President-elect’s COVID-19 Advisory Board. A
renowned physician, research scientist, author, and entrepreneur, Dr.
Murthy is among the most trusted voices in America on matters of public
health.

As “America’s Doctor,” Dr. Murthy helped lead the national response to a
range of health challenges, including the Ebola and Zika viruses, the
opioid crisis, and the growing threat of stress and loneliness to
Americans’ physical and mental wellbeing. Prior to his tenure as Surgeon
General, Dr. Murthy co-founded VISIONS, a global HIV/AIDS education
organization; the Swasthya Project, a rural health partnership that
trained women in South India to become community health workers and
educators; TrialNetworks, a technology company dedicated to improving
collaboration and efficiency in clinical trials; and Doctors for America,
a nonprofit mobilizing physicians and medical students to improve access
to affordable care. His scientific research has focused on vaccine
development and the participation of women and minorities in clinical
trials. Raised in Miami, Dr. Murthy received his bachelor of arts degree
from Harvard, his masters in business administration from the Yale School
of Management, and
his MD from the Yale School of Medicine.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky (Ruh-shell Wool-en-skee) currently serves as Chief
of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital
and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. An influential
scholar whose pioneering research has helped advance the national and
global response to HIV/AIDS, Dr. Walensky is one of America’s most
respected experts on the value of testing and treatment of deadly viruses.

A practicing infectious diseases physician, Dr. Walensky has been
recognized internationally for her work to improve HIV screening and care
in South Africa. She is a past Chair of Office of AIDS Research Advisory
Council at the National Institutes of Health, Chair-elect of the HIV
Medical Association, and has previously served as an advisor to both the
World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on
HIV/AIDS. Originally from Maryland, Dr. Walensky received her bachelor of
arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis, her MD from the Johns
Hopkins School of Medicine, and her masters in public health degree from
the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith (Mar-sell-uh Noon-yez Smith) currently serves as
Associate Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Management and
Associate Dean for Health Equity Research at the Yale School of Medicine.
A co-chair of the President-elect’s COVID-19 Advisory Board, she is one of
America’s most distinguished and influential experts on persistent
inequities in health care and health outcomes.

Dr. Nunez-Smith is the founding director of Yale’s Equity Research and
Innovation Center, a groundbreaking academic and policy organization
created to address inequities in health and health care. She serves as a
principal investigator on several leading research projects intended to
assess and rectify systemic discrimination and racial disparities in the
health care space, and created the NIH-funded Eastern Caribbean Health
Outcomes Research Network to improve health outcomes in an historically
underserved region. Originally from Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Dr.
Nunez-Smith received her bachelor of arts degree from Swarthmore College,
her MD from Jefferson Medical College, and her master of health science
from Yale University.

Dr. Anthony Fauci (An-thuh-nee Fow-chee) is one of America’s most trusted
and accomplished scientific voices, a world-renowned infectious disease
expert who has served as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases since 1984. A prominent adviser to the last six U.S.
presidents on a broad range of health and medical issues, Dr. Fauci has
played a critical role in shaping and implementing the national and global
response to every major public health threat that has emerged over the
last four decades.

In his current role, Dr. Fauci leads an expansive research portfolio
covering the prevention, tracking, and treatment of both established and
emerging contagions, as well as asthma, allergies, and other
immune-related illnesses. He serves simultaneously as Chief of the
Laboratory of Immunoregulation and Chief of the Immunopathogenesis Section
at the National Institutes of Health, having largely pioneered the field
of human immune response regulation with his early research. As a
prominent scientific adviser throughout the HIV/AIDS crisis, he also
helped lead the creation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS
Relief, which has been credited with saving the lives of millions across
the globe. In addition to a litany of awards and the 45 honorary degrees
he has received from universities worldwide, he was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2008. Born
and raised in Brooklyn, Dr. Fauci received his bachelor of arts degree
from the College of the Holy
Cross, and his MD from Cornell University.

Jeff Zients (Jeff Zy-ence) is a renowned crisis manager and public servant
who has earned widespread acclaim for his ability to successfully navigate
large, complex initiatives through formidable challenges. Among a litany
of notable accomplishments, he is credited with having led both the 2013
tech surge to revitalize HealthCare.gov as well as the 2009 ‘Cash for
Clunkers’ program to help revive the U.S. auto industry while improving
fuel efficiency.

During his time in the Obama-Biden administration, Zients served as
Director of the National Economic Council, Acting Director and Deputy
Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the inaugural Chief
Performance Officer of the United States. He currently serves as co-chair
of the Biden-Harris Transition. Previously, he was CEO of the holding
company Cranemere, following decades of private sector experience as an
executive, entrepreneur, and management consultant across a wide range of
industries, including as CEO and Chairman of The Advisory Board Company.
Born and raised in the Washington, DC area, Zients received his bachelor
of science degree from Duke University.

Natalie Quillian (Nat-uh-lee Kwill-ee-en) is a national security expert
and former White House and Pentagon senior advisor who most recently
served as Deputy Campaign Manager for Biden for President, where she
helped lead campaign operations, election security matters, and other
management functions — including leading the campaign’s approach to
COVID-19 safety for the candidates, campaign staff, and thousands of
volunteers. Quillian began her government career as a civil servant during
the George W. Bush administration, and went on to serve all eight years in
the Obama-Biden administration, where she played an instrumental role
coordinating the interagency response to the opioid epidemic. She has
served in a number of national security positions at the National Security
Council and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and as Deputy
Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the White House Chief of
Staff, working on complex interagency and crisis response matters.