News Release

Secretary Sebelius Announces Appointment of Cindy Mann as Director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations

U. S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the appointment of Cindy Mann to serve as Director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations (CMSO), part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Mann most recently served as a research professor and executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute.

“Cindy Mann has decades of experience in health care financing at the federal and state level, and vast knowledge of health care policy,” said Secretary Sebelius. “She has devoted her career to working on behalf of children and families, the elderly and people with disabilities. She will be an outstanding leader at CMSO, particularly as the nation moves forward with health care reform.”  

Mann previously served as director of the Family and Children’s Health Programs at CMSO from 1999-2001; in that capacity she played a key role in implementing Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

“Cindy has been instrumental in recent efforts to expand health care coverage in our country,” said Sebelius. “Her knowledge of health care issues and management experience will be a great asset to CMSO and to the millions of Americans who rely on Medicaid.”  

A brief biography is included below:

Cindy Mann, J.D., is a research professor at Georgetown University, Health Policy Institute and the executive director of the Center for Children and Families at the Institute. Her work focuses on health coverage, financing, and access issues affecting low-income populations. She has written extensively on these issues -- and on how they relate to the Medicaid and CHIP, in particular -- and has worked closely with state and federal policymakers and program administrators on the design and implementation of Medicaid and CHIP. From 1999-2001, Ms. Mann was the director of the Family and Children’s Health Program Group at the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), now the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In that capacity, she directed, at the federal level, the implementation and oversight of the Medicaid program with respect to families, children, and pregnant women, and oversaw the implementation of CHIP. Prior to her work at HCFA, Ms. Mann led the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ federal and state health policy work. She also has extensive state-level experience, having worked on health care, welfare, and public finance issues in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York. She holds a law degree from New York University School of Law.

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Last revised: July 30, 2009