Counselors of the Secretary
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Rima Cohen
Counselor to the Secretary for Health Policy
E-mail: Counselors@hhs.gov
Phone: (202) 690-7000
Video:
Rima Cohen is the Counselor to the Secretary for Health Policy at the Department of Health & Human Services. In this role, she provides advice to the HHS Secretary on a range of health care matters and helps to develop and lead Administration initiatives related to programs administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Agency for Health Care Quality and Research, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, and the Office of Civil Rights. Prior to assuming this position in the Obama Administration, Ms. Cohen was the Director of Health and Social Services for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, where she oversaw the City’s health care programs and agencies, including Medicaid, the City’s public hospital and health care system, and the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. Cohen also spent a decade on Capitol Hill as former-Democratic Leader Tom Daschle’s senior health policy advisor, and she founded and directed Insurance Options for the Uninsured (IOU), a project that developed and implemented strategies for expanding health insurance coverage in New York.
Ms. Cohen has a master’s degree in economics and public policy from Princeton and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan; she also did undergraduate work at the London School of Economics. After graduate school, Cohen was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study program evaluation methods employed by U.S. NGOs operating in Indonesia.
Ms. Cohen lives with her husband and daughter in New York City and Washington DC.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Dora L. Hughes, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P.
Counselor for Science and Public Health
E-mail: Counselors@hhs.gov
Phone: (202) 690-7000
Video:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Sharon Parrott
Counselor to the Secretary for Human Services Policy
E-mail: Counselors@hhs.gov
Phone: (202) 690-7000
Video:
Sharon Parrott is the Counselor to the Secretary for Human Services Policy at the Department of Health & Human Services. In this role, she provides advice to the Secretary on a range of human services issues and helps to develop and lead Administration initiatives related to programs administered by the Administration for Children and Families and the Administration on Aging. Prior to assuming this position in the Obama Administration, Ms. Parrott was the Director of Welfare Reform and Income Support Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where she played a leading role in the organization’s work on welfare reform, poverty and income trends, and the impact of budget and tax policies on low-income families. Ms. Parrott also spent nearly two years as a senior policy advisor at the District of Columbia's Department of Human Services. Ms. Parrott has a master’s degree in social work and an undergraduate economics degree from the University of Michigan.
