National Advisor, Manatt Health; former Secretary, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services

Dr. Mandy Cohen, former Director of the CDC and former Secretary of North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services – has led some of the largest and most complex health organizations – at the federal, state, and enterprise levels – through periods of crisis and transformation to build healthy communities.  Dr. Cohen currently serves as a National Advisor at Manatt Health and in other advisory roles, working at the intersection of policy, technology, and delivery system transformation. She advises health tech and AI companies, health systems, and state governments on health system transformation, value-based care, data and AI strategy, regulatory navigation, and public health modernization.

Dr. Cohen led CDC post-COVID and guided a comprehensive transformation of CDC’s strategy, culture, and operations—strengthening accountability, modernizing data and technology, restoring public trust, and reinforcing partnerships with states, health systems, Congress, and the private sector.

Previously as Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Cohen led the state’s COVID response; transformed Medicaid to managed care; launched the nation’s first large-scale Medicaid initiative addressing food, housing, and transportation as health interventions; and built NCCARE360, the country’s first statewide electronic care coordination platform connecting healthcare and community-based services.

Dr. Cohen has also held senior executive roles at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), where she helped implement the ACA, stabilize HealthCare.gov, and advance payment and delivery reforms. In the private sector, she served as EVP of Aledade, where she scaled national value-based care operations supporting 1,500 independent primary care practices across 42 states.