Health policy expert Melanie Anne Egorin will join the faculty at the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy this fall. Egorin comes to the school with more than 20 years of experience in federal service.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Melanie to Batten,” said dean Ian H. Solomon. “Her deep experience in health policy and public service will bring valuable insight, mentorship, and real-world perspective to our students and community.”

Egorin will serve as a professor of practice, advising students on the applied policy projects they complete for real-world clients as well as teaching courses on legislative politics and process.

Egorin served most recently as assistant secretary for legislation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where she was confirmed by the Senate in a bipartisan vote. In this role, she was the principal advisor to the HHS secretary and the liaison for members of Congress and their staff across the broad range of issues handled by the department. Egorin worked closely with Congress to pass legislation that improved support services for the most vulnerable Americans, strengthened the nation’s public health preparedness, and lowered health care costs.

After leaving HHS earlier this year, Egorin was drawn to an environment that valued public service. “The mission of the University of Virginia and the Batten School is aligned very strongly with my work: serving the people of the state and the nation and mentoring and training the next generation of policy leaders,” she said.

Egorin began her career as an academic, completing her doctoral degree in medical sociology at the University of California, San Francisco. In her confirmation testimony before Congress, she credited her dissertation research with shaping her approach to public policy. Studying case management for women living with HIV, “I saw how researchers and stakeholders used evidence grounded in the patient experience to advance policy and address health equity,” she testified.

What she observed taught her to prioritize the individuals and communities affected by different types of legislation. “I deeply believe the government is there to serve the people, to serve the citizenry. It's about making people's lives better,” she said.

Complementing her early research, Egorin transitioned to a career in health policy. She joined the Government Accountability Office in 2004 as a health policy analyst. She then went to the Committee on Ways and Means in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she served as a health and tax policy professional working for nearly a decade to expand health care coverage and improve patient protections. She was named an Emerging Politico Health Care Leader in 2015 and received the Women’s Congressional Staff Foundation Leadership Impact Award in 2020.

Across her various roles, Egorin is known for mentoring and supporting other staff, and has particularly valued working with young people. “Capitol Hill runs on the energy of people at an early point in their career, when there’s that spark of excitement,” she says. “I loved that there were always more people to teach and mentor.”

At Batten, she added, “I am really excited to continue working with young people who are still figuring out how they want to change the world.”

Although her work has focused largely on health care, Egorin looks forward to learning from faculty and students with other areas of interest and expertise — and to sharing what she’s learned from working on the Hill.

“I want to demystify Washington, DC, to help people understand that it’s not what they see on the news or TV shows,” she said. “It's a 250-year-old institution that's continuing to grow and evolve.”

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