President Barack Obama on Thursday announced his intent to nominate Kathryn Brinsfield to be assistant secretary for Health Affairs and Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Brinsfield has been serving as the acting head of the Office of Health Affairs (OHA) and the acting Chief Medical Officer since 2013 and has been the associate Chief Medical Officer and director for Workforce Health and Medical Support at DHS since 2009.
Before joining DHS, Brinsfield served in leadership roles for the Emergency Medical Services of the Boston Public Health Commission where she retired in 2009 as Medical Director of Public Health Preparedness and Homeland Security.
Brinsfield has also worked as an attending physician at Boston Medical Center and held associate professorships at Boston Univ. School of Medicine at the university’s School of Public Health.
As the acting chief of OHA, Brinsfield oversees an annual budget of about $125 million, with about $83 million of that for the BioWatch national biological threat monitoring program.
OHA provides medical and health expertise to DHS and also supports the department’s chemical and biological defense activities, including pandemic preparedness.