Dr. Dora Hughes (CMMI) Dora Hughes, M.D., M.P.H., is the chief medical officer at the CMS Innovation Center at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. She leads the Center’s work on health equity, provides clinical leadership and input on models, serves as the Innovation Center’s primary liaison with medical and clinical stakeholders, and provides leadership to the Innovation Center’s clinician community. In addition, Dr. Hughes is part of the CMS Innovation Center’s Senior Leadership Team, helping to provide enterprise-level leadership and strategic direction to the Center.
Previously, Dr. Hughes was a senior policy advisor at Sidley Austin LLP, where she advised on regulatory and legislative matters in the life science industry. Additionally, Dr. Hughes served as the counselor for science and public health to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this role, she helped implement the Affordable Care Act and provided oversight and guidance to the Public Health Service Act authorized agencies and Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. Hughes began her career in health policy as senior program officer at the Commonwealth Fund and subsequently as deputy director for the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee under Senator Edward M. Kennedy. She later served as the health policy advisor to then Senator Barack Obama.
Dr. Hughes received a Bachelor of Science from Washington University in St. Louis, Doctor of Medicine from Vanderbilt University, and Master of Public Health from Harvard University. She completed her internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.