President-elect Joe Biden is adding three new members to his COVID-19 task force of public health experts, his transition team said Nov. 28.
The new members are Jane Hopkins, RNMH; Jill Jim, PhD; and David Michaels, PhD.
Ms. Hopkins, who immigrated to the U.S. from Sierra Leone, worked for more than two decades as a bedside nurse, most recently in the Seattle area, and is executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW.
Dr. Jim is a Navajo Nation member and executive director of Window Rock, Ariz.-based Navajo Nation Department of Health.
Dr. Michaels, a former Occupational Safety and Health Administration administrator, is an epidemiologist and professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health in Washington, D.C.
"As COVID-19 surges across the country, I need a team advising me and a transition that offers diverse perspectives and viewpoints," Mr. Biden said in a news release. "Ms. Hopkins, Dr. Jim and Dr. Michaels will strengthen the board's work and help ensure that our COVID-19 planning will address inequities in health outcomes and the workforce."
The three new members are the latest to join the Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, which is co-chaired by Vivek Murthy, MD, U.S. surgeon general during the Obama administration; David Kessler, MD, former FDA commissioner under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton; and Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, associate dean for health equity research at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn.
The board was formed Nov. 9 to help guide the transition's COVID-19 response strategy. The task force now includes 16 members.