Adrian Shanker
Senior Advisor LGBTQI+ Health Equity
Adrian Shanker (he/him) is senior advisor on LGBTQI+ health equity in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In that capacity, he advises the Assistant Secretary for Health ADM Rachel Levine as well as OASH staff on LGBTQI+ health policy as well as providing staff-level leadership to the department-wide HHS LGBTQI+ Health Policy Coordinating Committee.
Before joining the Biden-Harris administration, Adrian led LGBTQI+ community centers in Allentown, Pennsylvania and Marin County, California and served as Board President of Equality Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, he served in two capacities in Governor Tom Wolf’s administration, as Commissioner and health committee cochair of the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ+ Affairs, and as Commissioner on the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, a post to which he received unanimous confirmation from the Pennsylvania state senate.
He also previously served as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.
Adrian earned his B.A., cum laude, in political science and religion studies from Muhlenberg College and earned a graduate certificate in LGBT health policy and practice from The George Washington University. Adrian has published numerous articles and has edited two anthologies on LGBTQI+ health policy--Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health and Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic. He was named Person of the Year by Philadelphia Gay News in 2012 and 2018.