Donna Edna Shalala is an American politician and academic who served in the Carter and Clinton administrations, as well as in the US House of Representatives from 2019 to 2021.
57 Facts About Donna Shalala
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Donna Shalala earned a bachelor's degree from Western College for Women in 1962 and served in the Peace Corps.
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Donna Shalala later worked as a professor at Baruch College and at Teachers College, Columbia University and was appointed as assistant secretary for policy development and research at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development by President Jimmy Carter.
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From 1993 to 2001, Donna Shalala served as the 18th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton.
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Donna Shalala served as HHS secretary for all eight years of the Clinton administration, becoming the nation's longest-serving HHS secretary.
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Donna Shalala is the first Lebanese-American to serve in a Cabinet position.
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Donna Shalala served as president of the University of Miami from 2001 through 2015, and taught at the university during that period.
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Donna Shalala was president of the Clinton Foundation from 2015 to 2017.
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Donna Shalala served one term in the House before being defeated in the 2020 election by Maria Elvira Salazar in an upset.
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Donna Shalala was born in Cleveland, Ohio, of Maronite Catholic Lebanese descent.
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Donna Shalala's father sold real estate; and her mother, one of the first Lebanese-Americans to graduate from Ohio State University, was a teacher who worked two jobs and attended law school at night.
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Donna Shalala attended West Technical High School where she was the editor of the school newspaper.
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Donna Shalala received a bachelor's degree in 1962 from Western College for Women.
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Donna Shalala's placement took her to a rural farming village in southern Iran where she worked with other volunteers to construct an agricultural college.
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Donna Shalala began her teaching career as a political science professor at Baruch College, where she was a member of the American Federation of Teachers union.
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In 1972, Donna Shalala became a professor of politics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, a post she held until 1979.
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Donna Shalala became the only woman on the Municipal Assistance Corporation, a group tasked with saving the city during the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis.
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Donna Shalala was the first woman to lead a Big Ten Conference school, and only the second woman in the country to head a major research university.
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Donna Shalala's nomination went before the Senate Finance Committee in January 1993, and the Senate voted to confirm her on January 22,1993.
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Donna Shalala served as HHS secretary for eight years during the Clinton administration, becoming the nation's longest-serving HHS secretary.
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In 1996, Donna Shalala was the designated survivor during Clinton's State of the Union address.
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Donna Shalala is the first Lebanese-American to serve in a cabinet position.
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In 2001, Donna Shalala joined the boards of UnitedHealth and Lennar, where over the following decade she earned millions of dollars.
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Donna Shalala was paid almost a half-million dollars in 2010 to serve on the boards of three companies, two of which were run by UM trustees.
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Donna Shalala rejoined Lennar in 2017 after she was no longer President of the University.
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In 2001, Donna Shalala became president of the University of Miami.
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When Donna Shalala ran for the US Congress in 2018, her candidacy was opposed by local environmentalists for her part in the sale of the University of Miami pine rocklands site.
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Donna Shalala faced some criticism for her response to a nationally publicized custodial workers' strike at the University of Miami, which lasted from February 28,2006, until May 1,2006.
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Donna Shalala was criticized for living in luxury while the custodians did not have health insurance.
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Donna Shalala criticized union organizer's tactics, including a sit-in that she said prevented students from attending classes.
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In 2015, Donna Shalala took a leave of absence from her tenured professorship at the University of Miami to volunteer for the Clinton Foundation.
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Donna Shalala followed her tenure as president of the University of Miami by being named chief executive officer of the Foundation, serving in that capacity from 2015 to 2017.
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Donna Shalala maintained a home in Miami and taught part-time at UM while heading the foundation in New York.
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Donna Shalala led the Clinton Foundation during the 2016 presidential election, in which Hillary Clinton was a leading candidate and the propriety of the foundation's activity came under scrutiny.
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Donna Shalala oversaw the termination of the Clinton Global Initiative during her tenure as CEO, as well as other reductions in operations intended to avoid conflicts of interest if Clinton won the election.
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Donna Shalala left the Clinton Foundation in April 2017 to return to her full-time teaching position at the University of Miami, replacing her former HHS deputy Kevin Thurm.
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In March 2018, Donna Shalala declared her candidacy in the Democratic primary for Florida's 27th congressional district.
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Donna Shalala ran against Republican candidate Maria Elvira Salazar, an anchorwoman for Miami Telemundo outlet WSCV, in the general election.
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Donna Shalala's campaign emphasized her experience and sought to tie Salazar to President Donald Trump, who was unpopular in the district.
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However, Shalala won the election at the age of 77, making her the second-oldest freshman Representative in history after James B Bowler who was elected at the age of 78 in 1953.
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Donna Shalala was sworn in as a member of the 116th United States Congress on January 3,2019.
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On December 18,2019, Donna Shalala voted to impeach President Donald Trump.
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The appointment was met with criticism; the Miami Herald reported that Donna Shalala had violated the STOCK Act by failing to disclose more than 500 stock trades, but Donna Shalala remained on the commission and paid a $1,200 fine to the United States House Committee on Ethics.
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On September 28,2020, The Miami Herald reported that Donna Shalala failed to publicly report two additional stock trades in violation of the STOCK Act disclosure rules.
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Donna Shalala was named a vice-chair of the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
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Donna Shalala served on the board of directors of the United States Soccer Federation.
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Donna Shalala served as a member of the board of directors of Lennar.
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Donna Shalala served on the board of directors of Gannett Company from 2001 to 2011, retiring because of age limits.
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In 1985, Donna Shalala became a founding member of EMILY's List, a political action committee that seeks to elect pro-choice Democratic women to office.
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Donna Shalala serves as a co-leader of the Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
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Donna Shalala serves as a distinguished senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program and the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution.
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Donna Shalala is a member of Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington DC-based think tank.
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Donna Shalala served as a panelist on the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, a working group of former high-ranking government officials and academic experts that put together a set of recommendations regarding the United States' defense capabilities against biological threats.
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At the University of Miami, Donna Shalala was inducted the Iron Arrow Honor Society, the highest honor bestowed by the University of Miami.
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On June 19,2008, Shalala was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W Bush.
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Donna Shalala was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York in 2011.
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In 2019, Donna Shalala was announced as one of the members of the inaugural class of the Government Hall of Fame.