Dora Hughes

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 CMMI’s clinician community. In addition, Dr. Hughes is part of the Innovation Center’s Senior Leadership Team, helping to provide enterprise-level leadership and strategic direction to the Center.

Previously, Dr. Hughes served as an Associate Research Professor of Health Policy & Management at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at The George Washington University, where her work focused on the intersection of clinical and community health, health equity, social determinants of health, healthcare quality and workforce. Prior to this role, Dr. Hughes was a Senior Policy Advisor at Sidley Austin, where she advised on regulatory and legislative matters in the life science industry. Additionally, Dr. Hughes served as the Counselor for Science & Public Health to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the U.S. Department of Health & 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 was Deputy Director for the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee under Senator Edward M. Kennedy. She then served as the Health Policy Advisor to former Senator Barack Obama.

Dr. Hughes received a B.S. from Washington University, M.D. from Vanderbilt and M.P.H. from Harvard. She completed internal medicine residency at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.