The Navajo Nation

Office of the President and Vice President

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 28, 2020

Navajo Department of Health Executive Director Dr. Jill Jim selected to serve on the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Advisory Board

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – On Saturday, 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, which 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. 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. I congratulate her and thank her for her dedication and commitment to helping our Navajo people,” said Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, who recommended Dr. Jim to be appointed to the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Advisory Board.

Dr. Jim was appointed to serve as the Executive Director for the Navajo Department of Health by President Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer at the start of their administration in January 2019. Dr. 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 Master’s Degree in Health Care Administration, a second Master’s in Public Health from the University of Utah. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Health Promotion and Community Health Education from Northern Arizona University. Some of her 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,” stated Dr. Jim.

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 on Saturday 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,” added President Nez.