Shalala Urges Reforms to Support Wounded Soldiers

Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala will speak at North Carolina State University's Millennium Seminar Series with a presentation to students, faculty, staff and the public at 3 p.m. on Monday, March 10, in Stewart Theater on campus. Her remarks will focus on the care of returning wounded service members from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Shalala has served as president of the University of Miami since 2001. Last year, President George W. Bush selected her to co-chair with Sen. Bob Dole the Commission on Care for Returning Wounded Warriors, to evaluate how wounded service members transition from active duty to civilian society. The commission issued a final report, "Serve, Support, Simplify" in 2007, which Shalala will discuss at this seminar.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Shalala U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) where she served for eight years, becoming the longest serving HHS Secretary in U.S. history. As HHS Secretary, she directed the welfare reform process, made health insurance available to an estimated 3.3 million children through the approval of all State Children's Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP), raised child immunization rates to the highest levels in history, led major reforms of the FDA's drug approval process and food safety system, revitalized the National Institutes of Health, and directed a major management and policy reform of Medicare.

A leading scholar on the political economy of state and local governments, she has held tenured professorships at Columbia University, the City University of New York (CUNY), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She served as president of Hunter College of CUNY from 1980 to 1987 and as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1987 to 1993. Shalala also served in the Carter administration as assistant secretary for public development and research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

Shalala has more than three dozen honorary degrees and a host of other honors, including the 1992 National Public Service Award, the 1994 Glamour magazine Woman of the Year Award, and in 2005 was named one of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News & World Report and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. 

Born in Cleveland, Shalala received her bachelor's degree in history from Western College for Women and her Ph.D. from The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Mary P. Easley, first lady of North Carolina and a senior lecturer at NC State, coordinates the Millennium Seminars series. The series provides opportunities for students to interact with world leaders from diverse backgrounds. Presentations address world issues from the speaker's perspective, placing local and national events in a global context. The seminars are designed to engage, encourage and inspire students to reach beyond borders and think more globally about what they have learned, and what their role will be as they move into the workforce.

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• NC State Millennium Seminars