PHILADELPHIA — University of Pennsylvania alumna Nicole Lurie, MD, MSPH (B.A. ‘75, M.D.’79), Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will deliver the address at the Perelman School of Medicine’s commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 12, 2013 in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
“We are delighted to have Dr. Lurie return to campus to speak before our graduates,” said J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine and Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System. “As a distinguished alumna of the Perelman School of Medicine, she is an ideal candidate to inspire our students to attain the level of achievement and honor that she has experienced in her own prominent career.”
As the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Dr. Lurie serves as the Secretary's principal advisor on matters related to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies. The ASPR also coordinates interagency activities among HHS, other Federal departments, agencies, and offices, and State and local officials responsible for emergency preparedness and the protection of the civilian population from acts of bioterrorism and other public health emergencies. The mission of her office is to lead the nation in preventing, responding to and recovering from the adverse health effects of public health emergencies and disasters.
Prior to that, Lurie was Senior Natural Scientist and the Paul O’ Neill Alcoa Professor of Health Policy at the RAND Corporation. There she directed RAND’s public health and preparedness work as well as RAND’s Center for Population Health and Health Disparities. She previously served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; in state government, as Medical Advisor to the Commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Health; and in academia, as Professor in the University of Minnesota Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Lurie has a long history in the health services research field, primarily in the areas of access to and quality of care, mental health, prevention, public health infrastructure, and preparedness and health disparities.
Lurie is an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania and the Perelman School of Medicine, and completed her residency and MSPH at UCLA, where she was also a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar. She served as Senior Editor for the journal Health Services Research and as President of the Society of General Internal Medicine, as well as on multiple other national committees. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Perelman School of Medicine’s Distinguished Alumni Award (2009), and a member of the Institute of Medicine.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.