Richard Kronick, PhD. Former Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Dr. Kronick originally joined the HHS in January 2010 as deputy assistant secretary for planning and evaluation, overseeing the Office of Health Policy. In August 2013, Dr. Kronick was appointed as director of AHRQ by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. During his tenure, the work of the AHRQ and that of other government agencies and the private sector led to hospital care that was 17 percent safer in 2014 than 2010, according to current HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell. Dr. Kronick announced his departure from AHRQ in February this year. He plans to return to the University of California, San Diego, where he was previously a professor and chief of the division of healthcare sciences in the family and preventive medicine department.