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Rear Admiral Susan Blumenthal MD, MPA (ret) served for more than two decades as a leading Federal government health official in the Administrations of four U.S Presidents where her work focused on a broad range of public health and science issues facing the nation and world. An internationally recognized medical expert, she was the country’s first ever Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women’s Health, Assistant Surgeon General of the United States, Senior Global Health Advisor in the US Department of Health and Human Services and a Health Advisor to the White House.  Rear Admiral Blumenthal also was Chief of the Behavioral Medicine and Basic Prevention Research Branch and Head of the Suicide Research Unit at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  

 

In 1990, she was a major force in exposing the inequities in women’s health research and services including the lack of attention to sex and gender differences in disease. In recognition of her pioneering leadership, she was appointed and served as the country’s first ever Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women’s Health where she coordinated a $4 billion dollar budget across the agencies of US Department of Health and Human Services, developing many novel cross-cutting initiatives that moved women’s health and the career development of women in medicine and science to the forefront of America’s health care agenda and worked with other countries to do the same. Dr. Blumenthal founded the National Centers of Excellence in Women’s Health program at academic health centers across the United States and the National Women’s Health Information Center, the first website and toll- free telephone number in the government for health, as well as appointed regional women’s health coordinators to build infrastructure at the state level. She was the Host and Medical Director of the first television series on women’s health as well as chaired and organized numerous national and international women’s health conferences. Rear Admiral Blumenthal co-chaired and directed a Presidential initiative on breast cancer. Additionally, Dr. Blumenthal has established and directed several international initiatives including in the Middle East using health diplomacy as a peace-building tool and was involved in the national public health response to the anthrax attack and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Dr. Blumenthal has also been a trailblazer in applying technology to improve health, creating some of the very first health websites in the US government and has called for the establishment of a new field of public health technology. She has convened national conferences and is leading initiatives at universities to establish schools and centers in this new academic discipline for education, research and entrepreneurship.

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Currently, Dr. Blumenthal serves as a Visiting Professor at the MIT Media Lab where she has led innovative projects to apply technology to re-imagine and build 21st century public health infrastructure by establishing a new field of public health technology, to combat the COVID-19 pandemic serving as Director of the Beatthevirus.info online resource center, to focus on advancing women’s health with technology as the Honorary Chair of its WHx Women’s Health Program, and to modernize Federal food assistance programs in which as many as 50% of all infants born in America are enrolled with the Wiring WIC initiative.

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As a Provost Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University, Rear Admiral Blumenthal has co-chaired conferences on catalyzing innovation in public health technology and is co-chairing a Task Force that is exploring the establishment of a Center on Public Health Technology at the University. She is the recipient of a grant to pioneer the investigation of applications of AI to strengthen and innovate public health infrastructure, education, research, and practice. Dr. Blumenthal also serves as the Senior Health Advisor to the President of Arizona State University, co-chairing an initiative that has established the first School of Technology for Public Health in the world launched in August 2025.

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Dr. Blumenthal has made the fight against cancer a top priority. She served as the Co-Chair and was responsible for the coordination and implementation of a Presidential Initiative on Breast Cancer that catalyzed many new programs to accelerate progress in the fight against this disease. She also organized a major public/private sector initiative on ovarian cancer. Dr. Blumenthal initiated a unique collaboration called “From Missiles to Mammograms” initiative that transferred CIA, DOD, and NASA imaging technology to improve the early detection of breast and other cancers, catalyzing the development of digital mammography, computer assisted diagnosis, and 3-D medical imaging. Today, she serves as the Ambassador for the Institut Curie in Paris, France where she is leading an initiative to carry forward Madame Curie’s legacy in the 21st century by raising support for building the world’s first Chemical Biology Center that will conduct groundbreaking research to stop cancer metastases linked to 90% of deaths from this disease.

 

Dr. Blumenthal has served as the Elizabeth Blackwell and Bundy Visiting Professor at the Mayo Clinic, the Lila Wallis Distinguished Professor of Women’s Health at Cornell Weill School of Medicine, as a Visiting Professor at Stanford University in Washington, as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Women’s Studies at Brandeis University, and as a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard University School of Government.

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Rear Admiral Blumenthal has received numerous awards including honorary doctorates. She has published many scientific articles, edited books, and chaired national and international conferences. As a leading advocate, policymaker, and national spokesperson on critical health issues, Dr Blumenthal has been named by The New York Times, the National Library of Medicine, and the Medical Herald as one of the most important women in medicine, by the Commissioned Officers Association as the Health Leader of the Year, and as a Rock Star of Science by the Geoffrey Beene Foundation. In April 2025, Admiral Blumenthal was appointed as a Knight (Chevalier) in France’s Legion d’Honneur, the country’s highest recognition for military and civilian achievements.  She has also been awarded the Marie Curie Legacy Medal by the Institut Curie in recognition of her "extraordinary advocacy and scientific leadership in the fight against cancer and on behalf of the Institut. Dr. Blumenthal has been decorated with the highest medals of the US Public Health Service for “distinguished and pioneering leadership, groundbreaking contributions, and dedicated public service that has improved the health of women, our Nation and the world.”

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She is married to U.S. Senator Ed Markey.

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