Navajo Nation's Dr. Jill Jim selected to serve on Biden-Harris COVID-19 Advisory Board

Navajo Nation Department of Health Executive Director Dr. Jill Jim  was appointed to the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Advisory Board Nov. 28.  (Photo/OPVP)

Navajo Nation Department of Health Executive Director Dr. Jill Jim was appointed to the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Advisory Board Nov. 28. (Photo/OPVP)

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — On Nov. 28, the Biden-Harris transition team announced that Navajo Department of Health Executive Director Dr. Jill Jim was one of three more individuals selected to serve on the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Advisory Board.

The board was created in early November to help advise President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Dr. Jim’s extensive public health experience and expertise has been a major benefit for the Navajo Nation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and now she will serve on a much broader level to help fight this modern-day monster throughout the country,” said Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez. "I congratulate her and thank her for her dedication and commitment to helping our Navajo people.”

Nez recommended Jim to be appointed to the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Advisory Board.

“Our Nation’s COVID-19 preventative measures and restrictions put forth by our public health experts have served as a model for other states and entities across the country,” Nez said.

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Dr. Jill Jim (Photo/OPVP)

Jim was appointed to serve as the Executive Director for the Navajo Department of Health by Nez and Lizer at the start of their administration in January 2019.

Jim is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, originally from Navajo Mountain, Utah, and a fluent Navajo speaker. She earned a doctorate in Public Health, a masters in Health Care Administration and a second masters in Public Health from the University of Utah. She has a bachelors in Health Promotion and Community Health Education from Northern Arizona University. Previous work experience includes serving as a Health Care Analyst for HealthInsight in Albuquerque, N.M., consultant for Navajo Area Indian Health Service, and Epidemiologist for the Utah Department of Health.

“I am proud to serve as a member of the Biden-Harris Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board. I look forward to working with fellow members of the advisory board to help prepare an urgent, robust, and professional response to the global public health crisis, for President-elect Biden to lead with on day one,” Jim said.

The Biden-Harris COVID-19 Advisory Board is chaired by former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. David Kessler, former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy and Yale University Dean Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor of internal medicine and a health equity researcher.

The other two appointments announced Nov. 28 include Jane Hopkins, a nurse who specializes in mental health and a leader of several nurses’ unions and David Michaels, an epidemiologist and professor of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University, who served as an OSHA administrator in the Obama administration and an Assistant Secretary of Energy in the Clinton administration.

“We are very proud of Dr. Jim and all of our public health experts and frontline warriors who are fighting for us and saving lives every day. I am looking forward to supporting Dr. Jim’s role with the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Advisory Board and I am optimistic that the Biden-Harris transition team will continue to consider more members of the Navajo Nation for cabinet and high-level appointments as they assemble their administration,” Nez said.

Information provided by the Office of the President and Vice President

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