Mary Wakefield, who led the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) from 2009 to 2015, is back at HHS.
HHS announced Tuesday that Wakefield accepted an appointment to serve as counselor to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. She served as acting HHS deputy secretary during the Obama administration’s final years. Wakefield most recently served on the Biden administration’s HHS transition team.
Health care policy newsletter Politico Pulse reported that Wakefield returned to HHS temporarily “to help the department manage caring for a record number of unaccompanied immigrant kids.”
Wakefield’s encore at HHS draws attention to the fact that the Biden administration has been in place for more than four months and still has not appointed a new HRSA administrator. Career civil servant Diana Espinosa has been running HRSA since late January.
HHS on Tuesday also announced the appointment of Angela Botticella as chief of staff to HHS Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm. Botticella had been chief of staff at Catholic Health Association (CHA) since 2017. A significant number of CHA’s member hospitals are enrolled in the 340B program. Botticella held several director-level posts at HHS from 2013 to 2017.
