Cybele Bjorklund is vice president for federal strategy for Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medicine. In this position, Bjorklund deploys her expertise and experience to ensure strategic and effective engagement with the federal government, think tanks, and other federal policymakers across all areas of institutional interest.
Between 1995 and 2015, Bjorklund spent 14 years as the Democratic staff director for the Subcommittee on Health and senior health advisor for the Committee on Ways and Means, four years as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s deputy staff director on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and two years as a legislative advisor to Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. During her federal service, Bjorklund worked to improve Medicare, led in the creation of the Affordable Care Act, and developed many other laws affecting private health insurance, health IT, research, and other programs. Before moving to Congress, she was an analyst at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Bjorklund is a fellow of the second class of the Aspen Institute’s Health Innovators Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. She is on the board of directors for the David A. Winston Health Policy Fellowship and a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.
She holds an MHS from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and a B.A. in journalism from the University of Oregon.