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White House Names Kathryn Brinsfield (MPH ’01) to Post at Department of Homeland Security.

February 17, 2015
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Kathryn Brinsfield (MPH ’01) has been appointed assistant secretary for health affairs and chief medical officer of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

On February 11, the White House announced Brinsfield’s official promotion to the position, where she will continue to lead a team that serves as DHS’s principal authority for all medical and health issues. Brinsfield had served as the acting assistant secretary since 2013.

From 2012 to 2013, Brinsfield worked directly for the White House National Security Staff as the director of medical preparedness policy. Brinsfield joined DHS in 2008 as the associate chief medical officer and director for workforce health and medical support.

Previously, Brinsfield served in leadership roles for the Emergency Medical Services of the City of Boston Public Health Commission. She worked for Boston EMS as director of research, training, and quality improvements; medical director for special operations; and associate medical director. She retired from the Boston Public Health Commission as medical director for public health preparedness and homeland security in 2009.

Brinsfield has also held associate professorships at the Schools of Public Health and Medicine, and was an attending physician and director of resident education at Boston Medical Center. In addition to her MPH, Brinsfield received a BS from Brown University and an MD from Tufts University School of Medicine.

While in Massachusetts, she chaired the American College of Emergency Physician’s Disaster Committee; co-chaired the Massachusetts State Surge Committee; assisted in the creation of the Massachusetts Alternate Standards of Care Committee; and was the commander of the Massachusetts Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT-1) and supervisory medical officer for the International Medical and Surgical Response Team, which responded to the September 11 attacks.

Alan Sager, professor of health policy and management, recalled that Brinsfield was a student in one of his management classes in the Fall 2000 semester. Sager asks all students to write their professional interests on index cards, and Brinsfield wrote “boosting citywide interest in bioterror preparedness.”

Written just a year before the September 11 attacks, the comment demonstrated that Brinsfield was “clearly ahead of the pack in anticipating problems we might face down the road,” Sager said.

In her new official role as the head of the Office of Health Affairs, Brinsfield will lead a team that provides medical, public health, and scientific expertise to assist the DHS. OHA serves as the principal advisor to the secretary and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator on medical and public health issues.

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