Nancy-Ann graduated from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 1978 with a B.A. in history and was the first female president of the UT student body – in 1978, Glamour magazine named her one of the year’s top ten college women.
After graduation, she enrolled in Harvard Law School, but paused her studies there when she was awarded a Rhodes scholarship. During this time, she went to Balliol College of Oxford University, receiving a B.A. and M.A. in politics and economics in 1981. She then returned to Harvard, earning her JD in 1983.
From 1997-2000, she worked as an Administrator at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which at the time was the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). As Administrator, she directed Medicare, Medicaid, and the State Children’s Health Insurance (SCHIP), which provide health insurance for more than 105 million Americans at an annual cost of $870 billion. In 2001, she became a Senior Advisor at JPMorgan Partners, a role she left in 2005.
Starting in 2002, she started working as a Director at Accredo Health (until 2006) and as a Trustee at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (until 2009). From 2008-2009, she was a Director at Medco Health and from 2001-2009, she was a Director at Cerner Corporation. From 2002-2008, she also worked as a commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), which advises Congress on Medicare policy matters.
Starting in 2009, she served in her capacity as a health policy expert as Counselor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform. In this role, she spearheaded President Obama’s successful effort to enact the ACA and managed the initial implementation of the laws. In February 2011, Nancy-Ann began working in the Obama White House as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy. She was in this role until January 2013, when she left to work as both a visiting scholar in economic studies at the Brookings Institution and a law lecturer at Harvard Law School.
She is currently a partner and co-founder of Consonance Capital Partners, a private equity firm that focuses on investing in the U.S. health care industry.
