President Joe Biden is assembling a task force to help guide efforts to address health and social inequities related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The task force includes 12 members representing diverse backgrounds and expertise, a range of racial and ethnic groups, and numerous populations, the president said in announcing the appointees Feb. 10. Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, chair of the task force, will also ask HHS and five other federal agencies to be represented on the group.
Task force chair:
Dr. Nunez-Smith, associate dean for health equity research at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn.
Task force members:
Mayra Alvarez, president of The Children's Partnership, a California-based advocacy organization focused on advancing child health equity
James Hildreth, MD, PhD, president and CEO of Nashville, Tenn.-based Meharry Medical College, the largest private, independent historically Black academic health sciences center in the U.S.
Andrew Imparato, disability rights attorney and the executive director of Disability Rights California
Victor Joseph, former Tanana (Alaska) Chiefs Conference chief/chair
Joneigh Khaldun, MD, chief medical executive for Michigan and the chief deputy director for health in the state's department of health and human services
Octavio Martinez Jr., MD, executive director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at The University of Texas at Austin
Tim Putnam, president and CEO of Margaret Mary Health, a community hospital in Batesville, Ind.
Vincent Toranzo, active student from Broward County in Florida
Mary Turner, RN, an intensive care unit nurse at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, Minn., and president of the Minnesota Nurses Association union
Homer Venters, MD, a physician and epidemiologist working at the intersection of incarceration, health and human rights
Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, which is based in Nashville, Tenn.
Haeyoung Yoon, senior policy director at the New York-based National Domestic Workers Alliance
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