Donna E. Shalala, PhD

Donna E. Shalala is Trustee Professor of Political Science and Health Policy at the University of Miami. She served as President of the Clinton Foundation from June 2015 to March 2017; President of the University of Miami from 2001-20015; President of Hunter College of the City University of New York from 1980 to 1987; and Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1987 to 1993. A political scientist, she has held professorships at Columbia University, the City University of New York (CUNY), and the University of Wisconsin. One of the most honored academics of her generation, she has been elected to seven national academies: the National Academy of Education, the National Academy of Public Administration, the American Academy of Art and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Social Insurance, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the National Academy of Medicine.

 

President Clinton nominated her as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 1993, and she served in that post for eight years. In 2007, she was selected by President George W. Bush to co-chair the Presidential Commission on Care for Returning Warriors. In 2008 President Bush presented her with the Presidential Medial of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. 

 

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, she served as a United State Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran from 1962-64. In 2005, she was named one of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News & World Report. In 2010, she received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights; in 2011 she was elected to the National Women's Hall of Fame. She has received more than fifty honorary degrees from universities in the United States and abroad. In 2016, she received the National Academy of Medicine's David Rail Medal, for her "master leadership of the Committee on the Future of Nursing which produced a superb report that forged a movement and is recognized as a game changer in efforts to expand access to and improve quality of healthcare..."