What to know about Dr. Mandy Cohen, who is expected to be Biden’s next CDC director

Dr. Mandy Cohen, who guided North Carolina through the COVID-19 pandemic, is being considered as the next head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A source familiar with the matter told McClatchy that the decision is not final. She would replace Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who announced in May that she would leave office at the end of June.

But Cohen, who became the face of the pandemic in North Carolina, would come to the position with years of experience in public health and medicine.

Cohen was secretary of N.C. Department of Health and Human Services before stepping down about a year and a half ago to go into the private sector.

Here’s what to know about Cohen.

What is Dr. Mandy Cohen’s experience?

▪ Cohen graduated from Cornell University, with a bachelor’s in Policy Analysis and Management; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with a master’s in public health; and Yale University School of Medicine with a medical degree.

After her residency, she was an internal medicine physician.

▪ She spent 15 years in the public sector and worked with the Department of Veterans Affairs, in Women’s Health Services. She later became executive director at Doctors for America, The N&O reported.

• She served in the Obama administration as chief operating officer and chief of staff at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

• In 2013, when Healthcare.gov failed to launch properly, she was called upon to fix it so people could sign up for health insurance.

▪ In 2015, Andy Slavitt, the administrator of CMS, made Cohen his chief of staff and then chief operating officer.

“I just recognized that she was the most talented person in the organization,” Slavitt told The N&O in 2020. “From the minute that she started doing the job, she was really running the agency with me, which was a trillion-dollar agency.”

What did Mandy Cohen do in North Carolina?

▪ She was appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper in January 2017 as North Carolina secretary of health and human services and was part of his Cabinet.

▪ She was named one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Women Leaders in Healthcare in 2019 and received the 2020 Leadership in Public Health Practice Award from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In 2020, Cohen was named The News & Observer’s Tar Heel of the Year for her work on the state’s coronavirus response.

▪ In November 2020, Cohen’s name was floated by national media outlets as a possible Biden administration appointee, perhaps as the federal secretary of health and human services.

“I am focused here on making sure the folks in North Carolina stay safe, particularly around the holidays, and I’m going to keep focused on that,” Cohen told reporters at the time. She said she “would be honored” to continue serving in North Carolina or in the federal government, “if that is an opportunity.”

Cooper responded by praising her work in the state: “Anybody would be fortunate to have Dr. Cohen, and of course I want her right here.”

What is Dr. Mandy Cohen doing now?

▪ She stepped down after five years at the end of 2021, having led the state through the coronavirus pandemic.

At the time, said she would spend more time with her family while “exploring new opportunities to carry on her work improving the health and well-being of communities.”

She said she would not run for office, though her name was raised as a candidate for high-profile positions.

▪ In January 2022, she announced she would work for Aledade, a healthcare company. She has been serving as the chief executive officer of its health services unit, Aledade Care Solutions, and executive vice president of Aledade.

The unit’s goal is to find new ways to innovate and take care of patients.

How did Cohen lead the COVID-19 response in North Carolina?

Cohen was a fixture at daily briefings with Cooper in the thick of the pandemic as they talked about the latest number of COVID-19 cases and restrictions. North Carolina closed and put restrictions on in-person schools, restaurants, gyms, bars, sports and entertainment venues, playgrounds, public spaces and businesses for many months as they navigated the pandemic.

Cohen was known for repeatedly urging North Carolinians to follow the “three Ws” of wearing a mask, waiting six feet apart from each other and washing their hands to control the spread of COVID-19. As vaccinations became available, she gave updates on who would be eligible as each wave of vaccine distribution carried through the state.

When Cohen left DHHS in early 2022, Cooper told reporters that he and Cohen had “been in the trenches together” and her work during the pandemic “saved countless lives.”

“I deeply appreciate your service and your steady hand in times of crisis,” Cooper said to Cohen then.

What is Cohen’s position on Medicaid?

Cohen was part of the team that launched Medicaid managed care, also known as Medicaid transformation.

In North Carolina, she was a major proponent of Cooper’s priority to expand Medicaid in the state. Republicans for years resisted calls to expand Medicaid to more low-income North Carolinians, but this year, the GOP-controlled legislature passed a Medicaid expansion bill and Cooper signed it.

Medicaid expansion would take effect if a state budget is passed into law.

Andrew Carter contributed to this report.