Internationally renowned public health administrator and health
policy advisor to four U.S. Administrations Ileana Collado Herrell,
Ph.D., has been appointed as the new director, Division of Scientific
Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, National Center on Minority
Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD), National Institutes of Health
(NIH). Herrell will be the NCMHD's chief liaison with the NIH's
Office of Legislative Policy and Analysis. She will also have responsibility
for producing reports on NIH research that seeks to eliminate health
disparities and address the health needs of medically underserved
individuals.
"Dr. Herrell has been a major force behind the development
of some of the most important health policy decisions in the last
25 years. Her leadership in the fight for the equitable treatment
of women, people with HIV/AIDS and the mentally ill is inspiring," said
John Ruffin, Ph.D., director, NCMHD. "Her broad knowledge
of how the government works and how it can be made to work more
efficiently makes her especially qualified to lead the planning
and policy division at the NCMHD."
Herrell is a recognized expert on developing health promotion
and disease prevention policies and programs at the local, state,
national and international levels. Prior to joining the NCMHD,
Herrell was a special advisor to the associate administrator for
the HIV/AIDS Bureau at the Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA). She began her federal career as the assistant director
for minority health at the National Center for Prevention Services,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She then joined HRSA
where she led the establishment of the Office of Minority Health,
becoming its first director while serving concurrently as the first
associate administrator for minority health.
"My work at the NCMHD is a continuation of my commitment
to use health policy to make a better world." said Dr. Herrell. "I
gladly accept this challenge and look forward to working together
with the NCMHD director to fulfill the Center's vision of an America
in which all populations will have an equal opportunity to live
long, healthy and productive lives."
Herrell has served as a consultant to governments and nongovernmental
agencies in more than 24 countries including the International
Labour Office and the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva,
Switzerland. While serving as a consultant at the WHO, Herrell
was executive secretary to the Global Task Force on Health Policy
and Development and advisor to the Global Commission on Women's
Health. She has served on several White House commissions, including
the White House Task Force on Health Care Reform and the President's
Committee on Mental Retardation.
Herrell is the author of over 20 publications on HIV/AIDS, health
and human rights, women's health issues, drug abuse, gender equity
and worker's health care. She is perhaps best known for Technical
Cooperation, Gender, and Social Dialogue: Guide to Mainstreaming
Gender Into Technical Cooperation Projects on Social Dialogue,
a treatise published in three languages — English, Spanish
and French.
Herrell's leadership and service have earned her some of the highest
honors that can be bestowed by HHS and the U.S. Public health Service.
Overall she's been honored more than a dozen times by private and
public entities for her public health expertise.
Herrell earned her doctorate of philosophy degree in human development
at the Institute of Child Study, University of Maryland, and Master
of Arts and Bachelor of Arts degrees in psychology from the University
of Puerto Rico.
The NCMHD (http://www.ncmhd.nih.gov)
is a component of the NIH. The NCMHD promotes minority health and
leads, coordinates, supports and assesses the NIH effort to eliminate
health disparities. The NCMHD programs focus on expanding the nation's
ability to conduct research and to build a diverse culturally-competent
research workforce to eliminate health disparities.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's
Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and
Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting
and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research,
and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and
its programs, visit www.nih.gov.