Dr. J. Nadine Gracia is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health and the Director of the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Office of Minority Health is dedicated to improving the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will help eliminate health disparities. Under Dr. Gracia’s leadership, the Office of Minority Health oversees the implementation of the HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and the National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities.
A pediatrician with epidemiology training, Dr. Gracia previously served as Chief Medical Officer for the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. There, she provided policy and programmatic leadership for a portfolio that included child and adolescent health, environmental health, disaster preparedness and response, global health, and the White House Council on Women and Girls. She led the development of the HHS 2012 Environmental Justice Strategy.
Dr. Gracia is a former White House Fellow, serving at HHS in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health and the Office of the Secretary. She also served as a policy advisor in the Office of the First Lady, working on the Let’s Move! initiative to solve childhood obesity.
An honors graduate of Stanford University, Dr. Gracia received her medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and holds a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania. She completed postgraduate training at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where she was Chief Pediatrics Resident. She served as a clinical instructor and general pediatrics research fellow at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, conducting research on community risk factors for violence.
A first-generation Haitian-American, Dr. Gracia is an advocate for minority and underserved populations and lectures nationwide on health disparities and health equity. She is a recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, including The Grio’s 100 History Makers in the Making, Washington’s Powerful Women by BET, the 1804 List of Haitian-American Changemakers in the United States, and the Emerging Trailblazer Award by the National Medical Association’s Council on Concerns of Women Physicians. Dr. Gracia is a National President Emeritus of the Student National Medical Association and a past Postgraduate Physician Trustee of the National Medical Association.