Donna Shalala

Donna Shalala
Official portrait, 2019
President of The New School
Interim
In office August 16, 2023 – July 31, 2024
Preceded by	Dwight A. McBride
Succeeded by	Joel Towers
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 27th district
In office January 3, 2019 – January 3, 2021
Preceded by	Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Succeeded by	María Elvira Salazar
18th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
In office January 22, 1993 – January 20, 2001
President	Bill Clinton
Deputy	Walter Broadnax Kevin L. Thurm
Preceded by	Louis Wade Sullivan
Succeeded by	Tommy Thompson
1st Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Policy Development and Research
In office January 20, 1977 – October 8, 1980
President	Jimmy Carter
Secretary	Patricia Roberts Harris Moon Landrieu
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Emanuel S. Savas[1]
President of the Clinton Foundation
In office March 6, 2015 – April 25, 2017
Preceded by	Eric Braverman
Succeeded by	Kevin Thurm
5th President of the University of Miami
In office June 1, 2001 – August 16, 2015
Preceded by	Edward T. Foote II
Succeeded by	Julio Frenk
5th Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison
In office January 1, 1988 – January 22, 1993
Preceded by	Bernard Cecil Cohen
Succeeded by	David Ward
10th President of Hunter College
In office October 8, 1980 – January 1, 1988
Preceded by	Jacqueline Grennan Wexler
Succeeded by	Paul LeClerc
Personal details
Born	Donna Edna Shalala (1941-02-14) February 14, 1941 (age 83) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Education	Western College (BA) Syracuse University (MA, PhD)
Donna Shalala's voice Secretary Donna Shalala testifies on President Clinton's proposal to reform Medicare Recorded July 22, 1999

Donna Edna Shalala (/ʃəˈleɪlə/ shə-LAY-lə; born February 14, 1941) is an American politician and academic who served in the Carter and Clinton administrations, as well as in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2019 to 2021. Shalala is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which she was awarded in 2008, and, on August 16, 2023, assumed the role of Interim President of The New School,^[2] a university in New York City.

Shalala earned a bachelor's degree from Western College for Women in 1962 and served in the Peace Corps. In 1970, she earned a PhD from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Shalala later worked as a professor at Baruch College and at Teachers College, Columbia University and was appointed as assistant secretary for policy development and research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by President Jimmy Carter. Shalala became the president of Hunter College in 1980, serving until 1988 when she became chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

From 1993 to 2001, Shalala served as the 18th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton. Shalala served as HHS secretary for all eight years of the Clinton administration, becoming the nation's longest-serving HHS secretary. She is the first Lebanese-American to serve in a Cabinet position. Shalala served as president of the University of Miami from 2001 through 2015, and also taught at the university during that period. She was president of the Clinton Foundation from 2015 to 2017.

A member of the Democratic Party, Shalala was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 27th congressional district in 2018. She served one term in the House before being defeated in the 2020 election by María Elvira Salazar in an upset.