Public Service Award

Suma Nair, PhD, MS, RD


Associate Administrator for the Health Systems Bureau in the Health Resources and Services Administration


This Public Service Award was established to honor those who have dedicated their careers to public service and who have helped to shape public policies or government programs that improve outcomes for kidney patients.

 

Suma Nair PhD, MS, RD is the Associate Administrator for the Health Systems Bureau in the Health Resources and Services Administration where she leads a portfolio of programs that improve access to care and strengthen public health and health care systems by increasing access to organ and blood stem cell donation and transplantation, including leading efforts to modernize the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network; facilitating vaccine and countermeasure injury compensation; and providing health care to individuals with, educating health care professionals about, and conducting research on Hansen’s disease (leprosy).

 

Previously, Dr. Nair led the Office of Quality Improvement in HRSA’s Bureau of Primary Health Care, which supports more than 1,400 health centers, including community health centers, migrant health centers, health care for the homeless centers, and public housing primary care centers. Prior to joining the Bureau of Primary Health Care, Dr. Nair worked on program evaluation and performance improvement programs impacting more than 80 different grant programs across HRSA.  

 

She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Nutrition and a Master of Science degree in Public Health Nutrition from Case Western Reserve University, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Health Services Administration from the University of Maryland, College Park.

 

Past Public Service Award Recipients:

  • 2023Tom Duvall, MBA
  • 2022: Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Chair, House Appropriations Committee
  • 2021: Aliza Thompson, MD, MS
  • 2020: Secretary Alex M. Azar II
  • 2019: Nilka Ríos Burrows, MPH
  • 2018: Andrew Narva, MD
  • 2017: Shari Ling, MD