Karen DeSalvo

Karen DeSalvo is a physician and public health expert who currently serves as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Health, former National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and former Director of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), a staff division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the executive branch of the United States Government. Her immediate predecessor was ONC Chief Medical Officer Jacob Reider who served on an acting basis for roughly three months following the resignation of Farzad Mostashari who resigned in October 2013. DeSalvo received her MD and MPH from Tulane University, where she subsequently served as Vice Dean for Community Affairs and Health Policy. DeSalvo also previously served as New Orleans Health Commissioner and New Orleans Mayor Mitchell Landrieu’s Senior Health Policy Advisor. In her role as National Coordinator, DeSalvo reports directly to Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Secretary of HHS. On May 7, 2015, DeSalvo was nominated to serve as Assistant Secretary for Health in the same department, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She has served in that position in an acting capacity since October 2014. A the time of the announcement The White House news release did not indicate whether she would leave her current post to take on this position permanently. On August 11, 2016, it was announced that she was resigning as head of the National Coordinator for Health IT to continue as acting Assistant Secretary of Health.