News Release

HHS Secretary Sebelius Welcomes Deputy Secretary Bill Corr, Indian Health Service Director Dr. Yvette Roubideaux

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today welcomed Deputy Secretary Bill Corr and Indian Health Service Director Dr. Yvette Roubideaux to the Department of Health and Human Services. Corr and Roubideaux were confirmed unanimously by the Senate on Wednesday evening.

“Bill Corr’s policy expertise and management experience will be invaluable as we work together to manage the Department and pass and implement comprehensive health reform,” Secretary Sebelius said.  “Bill knows our department inside and out, and I look forward to partnering with him in the years ahead.”           

“Dr. Roubideaux has spent her life working to improve health care for Native Americans," added Sebelius. ‘She has seen the Indian Health Service (IHS) through the eyes of a patient and a doctor, and I know she is the leader we need to strengthen IHS and ensure we keep our promise to provide quality health care to Native Americans.”

Brief biographies of Dr. Roubideaux and Deputy Secretary Corr are below:

Bill Corr most recently served as executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Previously, Corr served for 12 years as counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Health and the Environment. Additionally, Corr served as Chief of Staff for the Department of Health and Human Services. Corr is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the Vanderbilt University School of Law.

Dr. Yvette Roubideaux served most recently as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family & Community Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.  She has conducted extensive research on American Indian health issues, with a focus on diabetes in American Indians/Alaska Natives and Indian health policy.  Roubideaux previously worked in the Indian Health Service as a medical officer and clinical director on the San Carlos Indian Reservation and in the Gila River Indian Community.  Roubideaux, 46, is a member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe. She received her M.D. from Harvard Medical School and her M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health.

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Last revised: July 30, 2009