Gail Wilensky, PhD

Senior Fellow
Project HOPE

Dr. Gail Wilensky is a Senior Fellow at Project HOPE, an international health education foundation, where she analyzes and develops policies relating to health care reform and ongoing changes in the health care environment. From 1990–1992, she was Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, overseeing the Medicare and Medicaid programs. She also served as Deputy Assistant to president (GHW) Bush for Policy Development, advising him on health and welfare issues from 1992 to 1993. From 1997 to 2001, she chaired the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on Medicare. From 2001 to 2003, she co-chaired the President's Task Force to Improve Health Care Delivery for Our Nation's Veterans, and in 2007, she co-chaired the Defense Department task force on the Future of Military Health Care and also served as a commissioner on the Dole/Shalala Presidential Commission. 

Dr Wilensky is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of The National Academies and served on its Governing Council; is Vice Chair of the Maryland Health Care Commission and later this year becomes president of the Defense Health Board.  She serves as a trustee for the Combined Benefits Fund of the United Mineworkers of America, the National Opinion Research Center and The Uniformed Services