Donna Shalala

Donna Edna Shalala (surname pronounced ; born February 14, 1941) is the president of the University of Miami, a private university in Coral Gables, Florida. She has held this position since 2001.

Prior to her appointment as University of Miami President, she served for eight years as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Clinton.

In 2007, President George W. Bush appointed Shalala and Bob Dole co-chairs of a commission to investigate problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Early life
Donna Edna Shalala was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Lebanese immigrant parents. She has a twin sister, Mrs. Diane Fritel. She graduated from West Tech High School and received her bachelor's degree in 1962 from Western College for Women (which, in 1976, was merged with Miami University in Oxford, Ohio).

Shalala served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran from 1962 to 1964. Shalala spent two years in the village of Molasani where she and roughly 40 Peace Corps volunteers worked on building an agricultural college. "My Peace Corps service not only helped prepare me for my job as Secretary of Health and Human Services, it helped prepare me for life," Shalala said.

She received Master's and Doctorate degrees from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.

Academic career
After obtaining her doctorate from Syracuse University in 1970, Shalala taught politics at Baruch College (part of CUNY), where she joined the American Federation of Teachers. In 1972, Shalala became a professor of politics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, a job she held until 1979.

While still a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, she served from 1977 to 1980 as the Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Carter administration.

She entered academic administration in 1980 when Hunter College named her as its 10th president. She held this position until 1988. She next served as Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison until 1993. Under her chancellorship and with her support, the University adopted a broad speech code subjecting students to disciplinary action for communications that were perceived as hate speech. That speech code was later found unconstitutional by a federal judge. Also while chancellor, Shalala supported passage of a revised faculty speech code broadly restricting "harmful" speech in both "noninstructional" and "instructional" settings. The faculty speech code was abolished ten years later, after a number of professors were investigated for alleged or suspected violations. 

Every spring semester at the University of Miami, Dr. Shalala teaches a course covering the United States healthcare system, drawing on her expertise after serving as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Secretary of Health and Human Services
Following a year serving as Chair of the Children's Defense Fund (1992-1993), Shalala was appointed United States Secretary of Health and Human Services in 1993 by President Bill Clinton. She served in this role for all eight years of his administration, becoming the nation's longest serving HHS Secretary. In 1996 Shalala was the first female designated survivor during President Clinton's state of union address.

In her role as HHS Secretary, Shalala frequently drew criticism from political conservatives and moderates for her liberal positions. The Washington Post labeled her "one of the most controversial Clinton Cabinet nominees--one who had been branded by critics as being too liberal and politically correct."

However, Shalala was also known for her fervent anti-drug stance, saying "marijuana is illegal, dangerous, unhealthy, and wrong," though a number of conservatives considered the Clinton administration's anti-drug policies weak. Shalala also expressed reservations about Hillary Clinton's health care reform plan, saying “I didn’t come here to set up a new regulatory bureaucracy in Washington.”

Shalala was also criticized for her denial of support for Dr. Paul Farmer, the subject of the award-winning book Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder

Academic ratings
Shalala was appointed President of the University of Miami in 2001. Since her appointment, UM has made some progress in its national academic standing, as assessed by U.S. News & World Report, moving up 14 spots, from 66th (in 2001) to 52nd (in 2007) among 254 "National Universities." She spearheaded the "Momentum" campaign, the $1 billion fundraising campaign for UM, which is ahead of schedule and has increased the goal to $1.25 billion to be completed by the end of 2007.

UM's School of Business also has continued to rank highly, being ranked as the 44th best business school in the nation in 2006 by U.S. News and World Report. The Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, affiliated with UM's Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, was ranked the best hospital in the nation for Ophthalmology by U.S. News and World Report in 2006. In the 2006-07 academic year, under Shalala, 19,000 prospective students applied to UM. Of these, 8,360, or 44 percent, were admitted. In the most recent freshman class, students admitted to UM had a mean SAT score of 1269 with over two-thirds graduating in the top 10% of their high school class.

Custodial wages strike
In early 2006, under Shalala's leadership, the university was involved in a custodial workers' strike, a dispute between the university's then non-unionized custodial workers (now represented by the SEIU labor union) and the university's contractor, UNICCO. The strike, which lasted from February 28 to May 1, 2006, generated extensive campus and off-campus criticism of UM and UNICCO's labor relationship with its UM-based custodians. While various studies had shown that UM's custodial workers were among the lowest paid university-based custodians in the nation, UM failed to act on their wages until the strike.

Shalala also drew criticism from some striking workers and protesters for appearing to take the side of UM's contractor on how a union vote should be taken and for not acting earlier to prevent the strike, following the publication of a report that had clearly revealed that UM's custodial workers were not earning a living wage.

Co-chair of Presidential Commission
On March 6, 2007 President George W. Bush named Shalala and Bob Dole to head a  presidential commission called the President's Commission On Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors. The commission was formed in response to a growing outcry over the care of wounded outpatient soldiers. The commission includes seven other members, ranging from injured war veterans to the wife of a wounded staff sergeant who suffered burns across 70 percent of his body. Demands for corrective action arose after the Washington Post exposed living conditions in a decrepit Army-owned building just outside Walter Reed Hospital and highlighted obstacles and delays in the treatment of soldiers who suffered serious injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

On June 29, 2007, the commission released a press release announcing that members has heard testimony at seven public meetings and has conducted 23 site visits to military bases, VA hospitals and treatment centers across the country and was also conducting its own nationwide survey of service men and women and analyzing the data. The Commission will convene in August 2007 to publicly discuss its recommendations.

On July 25, 2007 Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson thanked the members of a special presidential commission chaired by Donna Shalala and Bob Dole for their work on the health care needs of returning combat veterans. "We at VA are caring for the whole veteran," Nicholson said. "I look forward to reviewing the commission's final report as we work to improve our efforts to return our wounded warriors to full function, while helping all veterans receive the jobs and educational benefits they deserve." 

On July 26, 2007 the Presidential Commission issued their report containing six recommendations to improve the military health cares system. The commission's proposals include the creation of "recovery coordinators," to assist each seriously injured service member navigate the healthcare system; giving the Department of Veterans Affairs sole responsibility for determining disability payments for military veterans; and taking steps to prevent and treat post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. President Bush announced that he had instructed the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Veterans Affairs "to look at every one of these recommendations, to take them seriously, and to implement them." 

The Associated Press reported on August 4, 2007 that as the commission wraps up its work, Shalala and Dole are making the rounds on Capital Hill meeting with Senators and Congressmen to get their support for the recommendations in the report. Dole had nothing but praise for Shalala's role as co-chair of the commission: "I'm a type A, but she's triple A. She's either got the cell phone going, or the Blackberry or she's in a conversation. She doesn't waste any time. She's all business, 'Let's get this done and get this done right," Dole said. "I was at the White House when they asked me about the commission and we sort of kicked names around. Donna's name came up and that was the end of the conversation. I knew it wasn't going to be partisan, but solution driven," he added. 

Personal
Shalala is of Lebanese descent. She has never been married and has no children. She serves on the boards of a number of charitable and nonprofit foundations, including the Albert Shanker Institute.