Catherine Oakar recently served as Special Assistant to the President for Public Health and Disparities in the Domestic Policy Council at the White House.  In this role, she oversaw development and implementation of President Biden’s public health policy agenda, ranging from nutrition, physical activity, and maternal health to tobacco, data security, and health care workforce issues. 

Prior to the White House, she served on the Biden-Harris Transition team where she oversaw the hiring of all non-Senate confirmed Presidential appointees for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which led to the most diverse group of HHS political appointees in history and the most ever to start on Day 1 of an incoming Administration.  She has consulted on various nutrition, public health, and health care issues as an independent consultant and as a Senior Advisor at Waxman Strategies.  During the Obama Administration, Oakar served at the White House as the Associate Director of the Let’s Move! initiative to reduce childhood obesity in the First Lady’s office and as a Senior Advisor in the Office of National AIDS Policy.  She was also the Director of Public Health Policy in the Office of Health Reform at HHS. 

Oakar began her work in Washington, D.C. as a Winston Health Policy Fellow.  She has also served as a Fellow at the World Health Organization in Geneva and conducted community-based research with low-income cancer survivors and safety net clinics.  Oakar graduated from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Michigan School of Public Health.  She is originally from outside Cleveland, Ohio.