ASH Recognizes Assistant Secretary for Health ADM Brett Giroir with 2020 Outstanding Service Award

(WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2020) —The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will honor ADM Brett Giroir, MD, Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), for his outstanding support of hematology research and patient care. He will be recognized at the all-virtual 2020 ASH Annual Meeting, December 5-8.

ADM Giroir will receive the 2020 ASH Outstanding Service Award, an honor recognizing effective leadership behind the scenes in areas relevant to the mission of the Society.

“ASH is pleased to honor ADM Giroir, a champion for hematology in our government who has advanced research and practice issues critical to our members and their patients,” said ASH President Stephanie Lee, MD, MPH, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. “ADM Giroir has been a trusted partner and advocate, bringing much needed attention to sickle cell disease, and ensuring that progress in conquering this disease in the United States and across the globe is a top priority for the federal government.”

ADM Giroir, a pediatric critical care specialist and physician-scientist, was sworn in as the sixteenth Assistant Secretary for Health at HHS in 2018, and in this role leads development of HHS-wide public health policy recommendations and oversees several of the department’s core public health offices, including the Office of the Surgeon General.

While his office leads many critical national initiatives, he has made sickle cell disease a top priority at HHS. He has re-engaged and expanded the activity of HHS’s Interagency Working Group on sickle cell disease. Under ADM Giroir’s leadership, HHS’s Office of Minority Health commissioned the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to develop a strategic plan and blueprint for addressing SCD in the United States (released September 2020). Additionally, ADM Giroir established the Global Coalition to End Sickle Cell Disease with key global partners that include ASH, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization. ADM Giroir has been a champion of SCD who has devoted his time to ASH initiatives to address the disease, including the Sickle Cell Disease Coalition, which was founded by ASH, and an FDA-ASH SCD Clinical Endpoints Workshop. He has also supported the Consortium on Newborn Screening in Africa, an SCD newborn screening and early intervention consortium convened by ASH.

The American Society of Hematology (ASH) is the world’s largest professional society of hematologists dedicated to furthering the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting the blood. For more than 60 years, the Society has led the development of hematology as a discipline by promoting research, patient care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology. ASH publishes Blood (www.bloodjournal.org), the most cited peer-reviewed publication in the field, and Blood Advances (www.bloodadvances.org), an online, peer-reviewed open access journal.

Contact:
Amanda Szabo, American Society of Hematology
aszabo@hematology.org; 202-552-4914