Yale doctor to advise Biden on virus health disparities

WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden selected Marcella Nunez-Smith, a Yale doctor and expert on health care disparities, to lead his administration’s task force on COVID-19 equity, he announced Monday morning.

Nunez-Smith is already working for Biden’s transition by serving as one of three co-chairs of his coronavirus advisory group.

“As we come back from this crisis, we need to bring everybody along,” NunezSmith tweeted Monday.

“It's been my life's work to combat systemic inequities in our health care system, and as COVID-19 Equity Task Force Chair, I’ll champion the changes we need for equitable recovery in our hardest-hit communities.”

Past administrations have not appointed senior level officials specifically tasked with working on health care equity, said Stephanie Kennan, vice president for federal affairs at McGuireWoods Consult

ing and a former senior health policy advisor to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. She saidd the federal Health Resources Services Administration does work on helping underserved populations.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the equity issues to the forefront because of so many minorities dying and not having the same access as others,” Kennan said. “Clearly, that is an issue related to getting the vaccine.”

Nunez-Smith will work with Biden’s Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Xavier Becerra, his surgeon general nominee Vivek Murthy, his director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nominee Rochelle Walensky, Chief Medical Adviser to the President and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, and Coordinator of COVID-19 response Jeff Zients to direct the national response to the ongoing and worsening pandemic.

“This team of world-class medical experts and public servants will be ready on day one to mobilize every resource of the federal government to expand testing and masking, oversee the safe, equitable, and free distribution of treatments and vaccines, re-open schools and businesses safely, lower prescription drug and other health costs and expand affordable health care to all Americans, and rally the country and restore the belief that there is nothing beyond America's capacity if we do it together,” Biden said Monday.

Nunez-Smith served on Gov. Ned Lamont’s Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group during the coronavirus pandemic.

Originally from St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Nunez-Smith is an associate professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Management at

Yale University and associate dean for Health Equity Research at the Yale School of Medicine. She is also the founding director of Yale’s Equity Research and Innovation Center. She leads several research projects on systemic racism in health care and has worked on U.S. government-funded studies to improve health outcomes in the Eastern Caribbean, according to the transition.

Nunez-Smith attended Jefferson Medical College, where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, according to her biography. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Biological Anthropology and psychology at Swarthmore College, according to her biography.

She is also a board-certified doctor in internal medicine and earned a master’s degree in Health Science through the Yale Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program.

“I am proud to see Yale School of Medicine’s own Dr. Nunez-Smith in a leadership role on the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 Equity Task Force,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “Staffing this new task force with such an impressive slate of experts shows the Biden Administration’s commitment to tackling health disparities that have gone unaddressed for far too long.”

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, said she has also relied of Nunez-Smith’s expertise.

“Her work at Yale informs our discussions on the LaborHHS-Education subcommittee and will play a critical role in future spending legislation,” DeLauro said.

The Biden transition declined an interview on Nunez-Smith’s behalf.

Nunez-Smith