Donna Edna Shalala

Donna E. Shalala became Professor of Political Science and President of the University of Miami on June 1, 2001. She recently announced that she will step down in June 2015. She serves as a distinguished senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program and the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution. Shalala received her A.B. degree (1962) in history from Western College for Women. One of the country's first Peace Corps Volunteers, she served in Iran from 1962 to 1964. She earned her Ph.D. degree (1970) from The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She has held tenured professorships at Columbia University, the City University of New York (CUNY), and the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She served as President of Hunter College of the City University of New York from 1980 to 1987 and as Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1987 to 1993. In 1993 President Clinton appointed her U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) where she served for eight years, becoming the longest serving HHS Secretary in U.S. history. She served in the Carter administration from 1977-80 as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 2007, President George W. Bush handpicked Shalala to co-chair with Senator Bob Dole the Commission on Care for Returning Wounded Warriors, to evaluate how wounded service members transition from active duty to civilian society. In 2009 she was appointed chair of the Committee on the Future of Nursing at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2008, President Bush presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award; and in 2010 she received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights. She has been elected to the Council on Foreign Relations; National Academy of Education; the National Academy of Public Administration; the American Philosophical Society; the National Academy of Social Insurance; the American Academy of Political and Social Science; and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.