Carol Kelly to helm new NACDS department

ALEXANDRIA, Va. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores announced today that as of January, Carol Kelly will be coming on board in the newly created position of senior vice president of government affairs and public policy.

Kelly currently serves as senior executive advisor of external affairs to the secretary of Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt. In this role she served as the main HHS liaison to the White House Office of Public Liaison and to the Partnership for Value-driven Health Care, an employer health care reform coalition.

“One look at Carol’s background and it is readily apparent that she is ideal for this role at NACDS. Carol is considered as one of the great policy experts in the area of health care,” said Steve Anderson, NACDS president and chief executive officer. “She has had an extremely distinguished career in senior government positions, in corporate leadership roles, and as a senior executive in a health care trade association.”

Prior to her current position, Kelly served for two years as the director of the Office of Policy for HHS’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and before that was executive vice president for federal legislative policy and healthcare system reform at the Advanced Medical Technology Association.

Kelly has also served as a vice president, with responsibility for government affairs, for Premier, UnitedHealth Care and MetraHealth, as well as healthcare advocacy for MetLife and Equitable Life. “Carol understands the issues, the players and the landscape of health care. She has considerable experience in both regulation and legislation, and the interaction between the two,” Anderson said.

Kelly’s new department, according to Anderson, “will greatly enhance the effectiveness and profile of the federal and state legislative and regulatory activities of NACDS.” The restructuring will combine the current government affairs department and the current policy and pharmacy regulatory affairs department.

“We are building a culture at NACDS that is focused on achieving results. We are doing this through collective staff accountability and true integration of policy, state and federal government affairs, grassroots, communications, coalition-building and expertise in pharmacy practice and front-end issues. The staff’s embracing of these principles, as well as its talent and tenacity, shine through in recent successes, and in our commitment to ongoing issues. Carol Kelly will bring to this important work a second-to-none professional portfolio, and we are enthusiastic about her taking the helm of a newly aligned department that is poised to deliver results for chain community pharmacy and the patients it serves,” Anderson said.