Deputy Director for Blood Policy

Biography of Richard A. Henry
Deputy Director for Blood Policy and Programs
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Richard A. Henry was appointed by the Assistant Secretary for Health, on March 15^th, 2007 to be the inaugural Deputy Director for Blood Policy and Programs for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. As Deputy Director, Henry serves as the department’s chief operating officer for blood safety and availability where he oversees innovation models; builds coalitions and alliances; negotiates policy, products, and services; and thus, lends guidance to HHS regulation, research & development, disease surveillance, reimbursement, public health & services, preparedness & response, and health policy, in addition to other development and oversight activities for the national stage for transfusion and transplantation safety.

As a public sector leader for healthcare, Henry builds and fosters coalitions and alliances with local, state, other federal agencies, and foreign governments to negotiate a shared understanding of blood safety and availability with industry, academia, professional medical organizations, and consumer advocacy stakeholders.

Heralded as one of the nation’s experts in public health and healthcare, Henry is seated alongside industry leaders on the Government Coordinating Council for Healthcare and Public Health - charged with forging cross-sector interdependent resiliency in the expanding $2 trillion U.S. healthcare system. A founding member in 2005, Henry’s activities span 17 other sectors from Energy and Finance, to Agriculture and Security. He is an editorial board member and associate editor of Public Health Reports, the Journal of the U.S. Public Health Service (federal health agencies).

A past two-term chairman of the U.S. Surgeon General’s Medical Technologist Professional Advisory Group, Henry is widely recognized throughout the medical technology industry. For HHS and the private blood industry, he has three times served as program director for the bi-annual National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey. Henry is board certified as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist and early in his career he practiced in the clinical laboratories of a children’s hospital system, a rural medical center, a tertiary university hospital, and a national reference laboratory.

Henry received a baccalaureate degree with specializations in education and medical technology from Wayland Baptist University. He completed his graduate education at The George Washington University, in Washington D.C., where he also holds a master of public health degree in health policy. Henry is currently at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business for an executive masters in leadership degree.