CEI Senior Fellow Dr. Joel Zinberg named Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy

Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) senior fellow Dr. Joel Zinberg was named as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy (Healthcare) at the White House today by the Transition Team. Dr. Zinberg will advise the President on healthcare issues from the National Economic Council (NEC).

CEI president and CEO Kent Lassman praised Dr. Zinberg’s expertise and experience in praising the appointment:

“Dr. Joel Zinberg is a tremendous asset for policymakers and brings a wealth of experience and insight to bear at a critical time for American healthcare policy. His grasp of complex healthcare challenges and clear-eyed analysis will help the President enact policies that allow more Americans to live better, safer, and healthier lives.”

Bio:

Joel M. Zinberg, M.D., J.D. is a senior fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Director of the Public Health and American Well-Being Initiative at Paragon Health Institute. He is a native New Yorker who recently completed two years as General Counsel and Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President. He practiced general and oncologic surgery in New York for nearly 30 years at the Mount Sinai Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine where he is an Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery. He has been involved with health policy issues and the interaction between law and medicine for his entire career. Dr. Zinberg taught for 10 years at the Columbia University Law School as a Lecturer in Law where he created a course on the legal, policy and ethical issues surrounding organ transplantation. He served for many years on the New York State Board of Professional Medical Conduct and on Mount Sinai’s Ethics Committee and Institutional Review Board. He is past President and Trustee of the New York County Medical Society. Between 2015 and 2017 he was a Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Dr. Zinberg has written for publications as varied as the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons, the Wall Street Journal, City Journal and law reviews. He is the author of book chapters on legal and policy issues in organ transplantation.

He received his J.D. degree from the Yale Law School, his M.D. from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and his B.A. in economics with High Honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from Swarthmore College.