About Sylvia Mathews Burwell
Sylvia Mary Burwell (née Mathews; born June 24, 1965) is an American government and non-profit executive who is president of the Harvard Board of Overseers and was the 15th president of American University from 2017 to 2024. Burwell was the first woman to serve as the university's president. A member of the Democratic Party, Burwell earlier served as the 22nd United States secretary of health and human services from 2014 to 2017 and as 39th director of the Office of Management and Budget from 2013 to 2014. A West Virginia native, Burwell first worked for the United States government in Washington, D.C., during the presidency of Bill Clinton. Burwell helped form the National Economic Council in 1993. Burwell later served as Chief of Staff to Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, Deputy White House Chief of Staff to Erskine Bowles, and finally, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. Between her times in government, Burwell served as president of Walmart's charitable foundation focused on ending hunger, beginning in January 2012. Burwell was earlier the president of the Global Development Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where her program focused on combating world poverty through agricultural development, financial services for the poor, and global libraries. She was chief operating officer and executive director before its reorganization in 2006. She joined the Gates Foundation in 2001, at the end of the Clinton presidency. President Barack Obama nominated Burwell to lead the United States Department of Health and Human Services on April 11, 2014. Her nomination was confirmed by the Senate on June 5, 2014, by a vote of 78–17. She served as secretary until the end of the Obama administration. Mathews first showed an interest in politics while still in grade school, when she became involved with her best friend's father's campaign for county commissioner and Jay Rockefeller's first campaign for governor.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.