Dr. Bernadine Healy

Bernadine Healy, M.D., is U.S.News & World Report’s health editor and author of the magazine’s On Health column. A cardiologist by training and author of two books, she is the former head of the National Institutes of Health, the American Red Cross, and the College of Medicine and Public Health at Ohio State University. Since 2001, she has been a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology as a bioterrorism expert. Healy is a frequent public speaker at forums and on air about the country’s most crucial health issues.



Before joining U.S. News in 2002, Healy served for three years as president and CEO of the American Red Cross, and as dean of the Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health from 1995 to 1999. During that time, the college was designated as a national Center of Excellence in Women's Health. From 1991 to 1993, she served as an appointee of President George H.W. Bush as the first woman to head the National Institutes of Health. During her tenure there, she conceived and launched the Women’s Health Initiative, a $625-million, 15-year effort to study the causes, prevention, and cures of diseases that affect women. Healy also served as president of the American Heart Association from 1988 to 1989 and was chairman of the Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation starting in 1985. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan appointed her deputy director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House. She served as president of the American Federation of Clinical Research from 1983 to 1984 and on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hospital from 1976 to 1984.



Publications: Living Time: Faith and Facts to Transform Your Cancer Journey (2007) | A New Prescription for Women’s Health (1996) | Author/co-author of more than 220 peer review manuscripts in cardiovascular research and heath and science policy

Honors: The American Heart Association special awards for service | Dana Foundation’s Distinguished Achievement Award (1992) for her work on promoting research on the health problems of women.

Media appearances: Healy’s national television appearances include CNN’s American Morning; FOX News Channel’s O’Reilly Factor; MSNBC’s News Live, Hardball With Chris Matthews, and Scarborough Country; NBC’s Weekend Today; PBS’s To the Contrary; and Retirement Living TV’s Daily Café. She has also been interviewed on numerous public radio programs, including The Diane Rehm Show (WAMU-FM, Washington, D.C.), On Point With Tom Ashbrook (WBUR-FM, Boston)