Report: Yale professor to co-chair Biden’s COVID task force

NEW HAVEN — A professor with the Yale School of Medicine will serve as a co-chair of President-elect Joe Biden’s task force on the coronavirus, according to a report from CNN.

Marcella Nunez-Smith, associate professor of internal medicine, public health and management and founding director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center, will be among three co-chairs of the group, two sources reportedly told CNN.

Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler will also helm the group, CNN reported.

According to her biography on the Yale School of Medicine website, Nunez-Smith’s “research focuses on promoting health and health care equity for structurally marginalized populations with an emphasis on supporting health care workforce diversity and development, developing patient reported measurements of health care quality, and identifying regional strategies to reduce the global burden of non-communicable diseases.”

Originally from the U.S. Virgin Islands, 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, her biography reads.

A request for comment was sent to the Yale School of Medicine.