Sheila Burke, MPA, BSN, FAAN, is an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. She served as Executive Dean of the school from 1996-2000. Previously she had been Chief of Staff to former senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (1985-1996), a professional staff member of the Senate Committee on Finance (1979-1982), and Deputy Staff Director of that committee (1982 to 1985).

She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and the American Academy of Nursing. She serves on the adjunct faculty at Georgetown University and is a Distinguished Visitor at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown Law Center. She serves on several boards including The Commonwealth Fund, Abt Associates, Ascension Health, and Chubb Limited. She served as a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (2000-2007) and on the Kaiser Family Foundation board (1999-2008).

Ms. Burke, who also serves as a Senior Public Policy Advisor and Chair of the Government Relations Policy Group at Baker Donelson in Washington DC, is married and has three children. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School at Harvard and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of San Francisco, and worked as a staff nurse in Berkeley, California.