J. Michael McGinnis, M.D., M.A., M.P.P.

J. Michael McGinnis, M.D., M.A., M.P.P., is an active front-line participant in national and international health policy and programs for more than four decades, Michael McGinnis is currently Senior Scholar and Leonard D. Schaeffer Executive Officer at the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). He is also an elected Member of the NAM, Executive Director of the NAM Leadership Consortium on Value & Science-Driven Health Care, and founder and facilitator of its Learning Health System initiative. In a tenure unusual for political and policy posts, he held continuous appointment through the Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton Administrations at the Department of Health and Human Services, with policy responsibilities for disease prevention and health promotion. In this capacity, he was founder and steward of various still ongoing programs and policies, including: the Healthy People program of national goals and objectives, the HHS/USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, and the Ten Essential Services of Public Health. In other appointments, he served as founding director/chair of: the health program group at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the World Bank/European Commission Task Force for Health Reconstruction in Bosnia; the federal Office of Research Integrity, and the HHS Nutrition Policy Board. Early in his career, he served as director of the World Health Organization’s smallpox eradication program in Uttar Pradesh, India, and director of the U.S.-Eastern Europe cooperative health research program. Educated at Berkeley (AB), UCLA (MA, MD), and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (MPP), he is perhaps most recognized for his research and publications on population health and the root causes of morbidity and mortality. Honorific recognitions include the federal Distinguished Service Medal, the 1996 National Health Leader of the Year award, and the 2013 national Public Health Hero award. Full CV is available here.