Ruth J. Katz, J.D., M.P.H.
Ruth J. Katz is Democratic Chief Public Health Counsel with the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the U.S. House of Representatives (serving under ranking Member Congressman Henry A. Waxman). The Committee has legislative jurisdiction over virtually every domestic health program, including Medicare, Medicaid, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration, and national health reform efforts.
Prior to joining the Committee, Ms. Katz was the Walter G. Ross Professor of Health Policy of the School of Public Health and Health Services at The George Washington University. She served as the dean of the School from 2003 to 2008. Ms. Katz was, from 1997 to 2003, Associate Dean for Administration at the Yale University School of Medicine, where she also held appointments in the departments of Internal Medicine (General Medicine) and Epidemiology and Public Health as an Assistant Professor.
Ms. Katz, a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, holds a law degree from Emory University and a Masters of Public Health from Harvard. She served for over a decade, from 1982 to 1995, as Counsel to the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the U.S. House of Representatives. In addition, Ms. Katz was, from 1995 to 1996, the Director of Public Health Programs at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; in 1996, the Democrat nominee for New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District for the U.S. House of Representatives; and, in 1997, Counsel to the Advisory Committee on Tobacco Policy and Public Health, chaired by Drs. C. Everett Koop and David Kessler. She was engaged in the private practice of law from 1977 to 1979.
While Counsel to the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, Ms. Katz was instrumental in the enactment of many major pieces of legislation affecting the public health and federal health care financing. She has received several awards recognizing her efforts, including those from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Women’s Association, and the Association of Community Health Centers. She has also been selected as a 2009 Distinguished Alumni awardee by Emory University’s School of Law.
In addition to her duties with the U.S. House of Representatives, Ms. Katz currently serves on the board of trustees of Emory University; is a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholars program; and has been a member of the board of directors of NARAL Pro-Choice America. She has also served as secretary and board of directors member of the CDC Foundation. Ms. Katz has completed terms as a member of the Advisory Committee to the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health; the Advisory Committee to the Director of CDC; CDC’s National Vaccine Advisory Committee; and the Finalist Selection Committee of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation.
