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BPC Adds Public Health Director, Health Policy Director to Restructured Health Program

Washington, DC – The Bipartisan Policy Center continues to expand its expertise in various policy arenas and our work on health is no exception. As part of that expansion, the Health Project has now become the Health Program under the leadership of Executive Director Marilyn Serafini.

“The challenges facing our health and health care system are immense, yet opportunities for bipartisan progress are real,” said Serafini. “In the next Congress, BPC’s Health Program will work with policymakers on both sides of the aisle to cultivate the bipartisanship necessary to transition to a better health care system and reverse the poor health trends brought on and exacerbated by the pandemic.”  

BPC enthusiastically welcomes Shana Christrup as public health director and Oliver J. Kim as health policy director, both of whom will work together to spearhead development of future bipartisan policy recommendations for the Health Program.  

Before coming to BPC, Christrup was the vice president of health policy at Hart Health Strategies Inc. She served as the health policy director for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and as the deputy director of legislation for the Washington, DC office of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Earlier in her career, Christrup was a health policy advisor to former Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN), worked for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the National Institutes of Health. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, a post-baccalaureate diploma from Oxford University, and a master’s in public health with a focus on health policy and administration from Yale University.  

“The pandemic highlighted the importance—as well as strengths and weaknesses—of our public health system, making this an exciting time to join BPC to help identify bipartisan solutions to address those weaknesses and build upon the successes of our public health initiatives,” Christrup said. “During my time in the Senate, almost all of the public health measures I worked on advanced under unanimous consent, so I think of public health as being fertile ground for bipartisanship.” 

Prior to joining BPC in April, Kim was the director of federal policy for Cambia Health Solutions, a regional health plan in the Pacific Northwest. He also served for a decade in the U.S. Senate, including as a senior health care advisor to Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and as deputy director for the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. During his Senate career, he worked on major legislation including the Affordable Care Act, the Medicare Modernization Act, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Kim received his bachelor’s from Indiana University at Bloomington, J.D. from the University of Minnesota, and LL.M. from Georgetown University.  

“I’m thrilled to be part of a team that is trying to drive needed changes—big or small, but all meaningful—in health care,” said Kim. “Throughout my career, I have worked for many elected officials who strived to work across the aisle whenever possible, and I hope to follow their example in developing policies that bring diverse stakeholders together.” 

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