Biden Nominates Leaders for VA, Indian Health Services | Healthcare Innovation
President Joe Biden has nominated new leaders of the Veterans Health Administration and Indian Health Services, both of whom have considerable experience in those organizations.
The nominee to serve as Under Secretary for Health at the Veterans Health Administration in the federal Department of Veterans Affairs, is Shereef Elnahal, M.D., M.B.A., who has served as president and CEO of University Hospital in Newark, N.J., since 2019. Prior to this role, Elnahal served as New Jersey’s 21st Health Commissioner, appointed by Gov. Phil Murphy.
Elnahal also served as Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Quality, Safety, and Value at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs from 2016 through 2018, overseeing quality of care for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). He co-founded the VHA Innovation Ecosystem, a program that continues to foster the spread of innovation and best practices that improve veteran care across the nation.
Elnahal led University Hospital through the COVID-19 public health emergency, and also set up one of the first COVID-19 vaccination sites in NJ, vaccinating the state’s first health care worker on December 15th, 2020.
At University Hospital, Elnahal brought his public health background to bear in community-based programming, including a recently announced partnership with a developer and the NJ Housing and Mortgage Financing Authority to provide supportive housing to homeless patients; a hospital-based violence intervention program that has served as a national model; and a program that deploys trusted chaplains as community health workers.
“Everyone who has worked with Shereef, myself included, knows that President Biden has made the right choice in asking him to serve as Under Secretary for Health for the Veterans Health Administration at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs,” said Gov. Murphy in a statement. “When I asked Shereef to join my administration as our first Commissioner of Health in 2018, it was because of his record in improving transparency and care for our nation’s veterans as Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health. Both in his roles as Commissioner and as CEO of University Hospital, Shereef brought together diverse communities and put equity at the forefront of his work. Moreover, his efforts at ensuring the ability of University Hospital to serve all needing care throughout the COVID pandemic have been nothing short of herculean. While I am sad to see him leave New Jersey, I know that the VA and our nation’s veterans will be the better for his returning expertise and knowledge in one of the federal government’s truly consequential posts.”
President Biden also nominated Roselyn Tso to be director of the Indian Health Service in the Department of Health & Human Services.
Tso, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, began her career with the Indian Health Service (IHS) in 1984. She previously served in various roles in the Portland Area IHS and IHS Headquarters. Currently, she serves as the Area Director for the Navajo Area HIS, which delivers health services to a user population of over 244,000 American Indians; the Navajo Nation is one of the largest Indian reservations in the United States consisting of more than 25,000 contiguous square miles and three satellite communities, and extends into portions of the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. In her leadership position, she was responsible for the implementation of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Act.