J. Nadine Gracia, MD, MSCE, is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health and the Director of the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Office of Minority Health is dedicated to improving the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will help eliminate health disparities.
A pediatrician with epidemiology training, Dr. Gracia was previously a clinical instructor at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and a clinical instructor and research fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she conducted research on community risk factors for violence.
Dr. Gracia joined the Federal government as a White House Fellow, assigned to HHS and later to the Office of the First Lady. She served as Chief Medical Officer in the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, where her portfolio included child and adolescent health, environmental health, disaster preparedness and response, global health, and the White House Council on Women and Girls. She also led the development of the 2012 HHS environmental justice strategy.
A first-generation Haitian-American, Dr. Gracia holds a Bachelor of Arts in French from Stanford University, a medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania.
- Plenary, Keynote Speaker