After months of waiting for Senate confirmation, openly gay Richard Sorian has been appointed to the post of assistant secretary for public affairs in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
While Congress has been in recess, President Obama has made four recess appointments to key administration positions, including Sorian, who was previously a senior adviser to the secretary at HHS.
Other appointments include Maria del Carmen Aponte to chief of mission for the Republic of El Salvador, Elisabeth Hagen to under secretary for food safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Winslow Sargeant to chief counsel of advocacy at the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Prior to working in HHS, Sorian held positions at the National Committee for Quality Assurance, the Center for Studying Health System Change and the Georgetown University Institute for Health Care Research and Policy. While acting as senior advisor for health policy communications in the Office of Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sorian's work focused on health care reform, HIV/AIDS policy and health care quality improvement.
From 1980 to 1993, Sorian made a name for himself as an award-winning journalist covering U.S. health care policy and development, and as editor of Medicine & Health and the Journal of American Health Policy. His expertise in health and policy lent itself to authoring several books on the subject, including The Bitter Pill: Tough Choice in America's Health Policy, A New Deal for American Health Care, and The Health Care 500.
The Obama administration has appointed hundreds of openly LGBT staff to its Cabinet, with many recommended by the Presidential Appointments Project-an initiative led by the Victory Fund's Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute, along with leading partners including the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce®, to increase the number of appointments of qualified, out LGBT individuals.
"We are proud to see another important indication that this administration values quality LGBT individuals, and is working to ensure our community has a seat at the table," said NGLCC president and co-founder, Justin Nelson. "We look forward to our continued work on the Presidential Appointments Project ensuring the administration continues to hear of qualified LGBT individuals suitable for public service."
For more information on the Presidential Appointments project, click here.
For more information on the four recent presidential appointments, click here.
