Jim to advise on COVID-19
Dr. Jill Jim, the executive director of the Navajo Department of Health, has been selected as a member of Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board.
Dr. Jill Jim, executive director of the Navajo Department of Health, has been selected as a member of President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board, according to the Biden transition team.
For the past 18 years, Jim has served in nonprofit, state and federal agencies, the Biden team said in a news release. Jim became a Cabinet member in the Navajo Nation in 2019.
According to the news release, Jim has dedicated her career to “preventing chronic diseases and addressing health care and health disparities among American Indians/ Alaska Natives.”
The Navajo Nation closed between March and August while recording the highest COVID-19 per capita infection rate in the country. In May, the Navajo Nation surpassed New York based on the number of cases per 100,000 residents. The nation ordered a new three-week lockdown earlier in November as cases rose again.
“Her leadership has been essential to the COVID-19 response on the Navajo Nation, as the Navajo Department of Health is authorized to respond to the declared public health emergency,” the news release said.
In a statement posted on Facebook on Saturday evening, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said he recommended that Jim be appointed to the board and is “very proud” of her accomplishment.
“Dr. Jim’s extensive public health experience and expertise has been a major benefit for the Navajo Nation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and now she will serve on a much broader level to help fight this modern-day monster throughout the country. Our Nation’s COVID-19 preventative measures and restrictions put forth by our public health experts have served as a model for other states and entities across the country,” Nez said in the statement.
The Biden-Harris COVID-19 Advisory Board is chaired by former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. David Kessler, former surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy and Yale University dean Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor of internal medicine and a health equity researcher.
The campaign team also named Jane Hopkins, a Washington state nurse and union organizer, who was born in Sierra Leone and immigrated to the U.S. in 2000; and Dr. David Michaels, a former assistant secretary of energy during the Clinton administration, as new members of the board, according to the Biden transition team’s news release.