Sarah B. Smith
Department of Health and Human Services
2020 fellow
Sarah Smith joined the White House Leadership Development Program from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At CDC, she most recently served as the Acting Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Director – Global Grants, providing leadership and oversight for CDC’s global assistance investments that fund critical public health work in over 75 countries.
Sarah advanced CDC’s emergency response work during the Ebola and Zika responses as the Management Officer for the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response from 2013 to 2017. In this leadership role, she coordinated all management and business operations for the organization’s nearly 800 employees and $1.4 billion appropriation. She also served as the Chief of Staff for CDC’s Zika Response in 2016 and 2017. Sarah supported CDC’s international work with overseas assignments in Abuja, Nigeria as the Acting Program Director - Global Health Security Agenda and in Nairobi, Kenya as an assignee to the World Health Organization (WHO) through a position with CDC’s Global Immunization Division.
Sarah earned her B.A. in History and Political Science with a minor in Business from Presbyterian College and holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Georgia. She entered federal service as a Presidential Management Fellow and is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute and Harvard University’s National Preparedness Leadership Institute.
As a WHLDP fellow, Sarah is assigned to the Office of Management and Budget’s Performance and Personnel Management Team, working on CAP Goal 3: Developing a Workforce for the 21 st Century.
