RDML Felicia Collins, MD, MPH, FAAP
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health
Director, Office of Minority Health
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
RDML Felicia Collins is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health. As the Director of the Office of Minority Health (OMH), she leads the office in its mission to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that help eliminate health disparities. She brings more than 20 years of federal service to this position and a passion for serving vulnerable and underserved communities. In early 2021, RDML Collins also served as the HHS Acting Assistant Secretary for Health, where she managed the development of HHS-wide public policy recommendations and oversaw 8 public health offices, 10 regional health offices across the nation, the Office of the Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
RDML Collins and the OMH Team are focused on the collective goal of the success, sustainability and spread of health equity promoting policies, program and practices. Under RDML Collins’ leadership, OMH currently has three programmatic priorities: (1) supporting states, territories and tribes in identifying and sustaining health equity-promoting policies, programs and practices; (2) expanding the utilization of community health workers to address health and social service needs within communities of color; and (3) strengthening cultural competence among healthcare providers throughout the country.
Before joining OMH in 2018, RDML Collins served a Senior Advisor in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC). In this role, she co-led programmatic monitoring and oversight of more than 700 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) receiving $2 billion in grants to provide healthcare services to more than 14 million vulnerable and underserved patients annually in 30 states and two U.S. territories. Prior to this role, RDML Collins served at the Food and Drug Administration, where she supported the development of safe and effective drugs for children in the U.S., consistent with the Pediatric Research Equity Act and Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act. Her first job as a U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) officer was with HRSA, BPHC and included serving as the BPHC lead for health disparities. RDML Collins has received numerous awards and commendations from the USPHS Commissioned Corps, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Secretary of the Navy.
RDML Collins’ professional experience also includes prior service as a legislative aide for the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues in the U.S. House of Representatives and as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
RDML Collins received her undergraduate degree from Yale and her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She completed a residency in primary care pediatrics at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts and received her M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health as a Commonwealth Fund Fellow in Minority Health Policy.