Director, Division of Policy and Performance Management
Dr. Adrienne Smith is the Director of the Division of Policy and Performance Management (DPPM) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office on Women’s Health (OWH). In this role she oversees activities that improve women's and girls’ health outcomes through program development, strategic collaborations, and project performance data reporting.
Her passion for public health service is evident from her 25+ year career. Over the years, she has cultivated an expansive portfolio of initiatives to improve health outcomes for women and girls across the lifespan, with a focus on breastfeeding, trauma, paid family leave, mental health, college sexual assault, sleep, healthy relationships, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, incarceration, nutrition, lupus, sarcoidosis, female genital cutting/mutilation, sarcopenia, and violence against women.
Currently, she leads violence against women efforts, with an emphasis on human trafficking prevention. She co-chairs the HHS Violence Against Women Steering Committee and supports the Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH), who serves as co-chair of the HHS Task Force to Prevent Human Trafficking.
Dr. Smith completed her undergraduate studies in Biology at Norfolk State University (Dozoretz National Institute for Mathematics and Applied Sciences—DNIMAS Scholar) and received a Master of Science Degree in Nutritional Science from Hampton University. She obtained a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Public and Community Health from the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Smith is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES), and a 2019 graduate of the Federal Executive Institute’s (FEI) Center for Leadership Development.