Assistant Secretary/Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge

In July 2005, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, appointed Dr. Jeff Runge to be the Department’s first Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Runge came to the Department on September 5, 2005. In October, 2007, President Bush nominated Dr. Runge to become the first DHS Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs and Chief Medical Officer, and his nomination was confirmed by the Senate on December 19, 2007.

The DHS Chief Medical Officer serves as the principal advisor to the Secretary for public health and medical issues across the Department. Dr. Runge is responsible for coordination with other departments and agencies in the Federal Government and the Homeland Security Council on issues of biodefense and health preparedness.

Over his time at DHS, Dr. Runge created the Office of the Chief Medical Officer and built a comprehensive Office of Health Affairs for DHS with a unique mission to run the Department's biodefense programs, ensure the Nation’s health preparedness in the event of terrorism or natural events, and to drive standards, policy, and metrics for the health and protection of the department’s workforce. The result of this effort has been to:

• Assume responsibility for the Department's early biological warning systems, and drive improvements in technology to provide earlier warning of a biological attack
• Stand up the National Biosurveillance Integration Center, a collaboration of six Federal agencies to monitor human and animal health, food, water, and the environment for evidence of threats to the Nation
• Assume responsibility for the Department’s implementation of Homeland Security Presidential Directives 9 and 10
• Deliver Federal strategic plans for comprehensive management of the biological national Planning Scenarios
• Support the DHS components in all health and medical issues, such as infectious disease protocols at the borders, import safety, and environmental hazards to employees or those served by the components

From March 2006 to August 2006, Dr. Runge also served the Administration as the Acting Under Secretary for DHS Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate. He led the transformation of S&T into a customer-driven organization to serve the Department’s needs for research, development, testing, evaluation, and certification of technologies for defense of the homeland, while putting into place rigorous fiscal control over the taxpayers' dollars.

Dr. Runge left his academic medical practice in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2001 to be part of the Administration of President George W. Bush, having been appointed by President Bush to be the 12th Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), where he served until his 2005 departure for DHS. NHTSA is responsible for the Nation's highway safety programs and safety and fuel economy standards for the motor vehicle industry.

In his four years at the NHTSA, he left a legacy of innovations in highway and vehicle safety that has resulted in thousands of lives being saved on our Nation’s highways. A few of his highway safety accomplishments include:

• Led the increase in safety belt use from 71% in 2000 to 82%, a difference of over 2000 lives a year, through his nationwide "Click It or Ticket" program
• Led the Nation’s first decrease in absolute numbers of highway deaths since the early 1990’s
• Oversaw the largest decrease in numbers of alcohol-related fatalities since 1992 through an innovative partnership with states and law enforcement agencies
• Drove the redesign of SUVs to decrease rollover crashes through NHTSA’s “5-star” consumer rating program
• Raised fuel economy standards for light trucks to save energy for the Nation - a larger increase than all increases cumulatively since 1986
• Promoted improvements in automated crash avoidance systems in vehicles, such as electronic stability control, which will soon become standard equipment, lowering deaths in light trucks by 60%

A native North Carolinian, Dr. Runge is a physician, educator, and researcher in Emergency Medicine. His life-long academic focus has been in the field of trauma care and injury prevention, dating from the beginning of his medical career as an EMT while an undergraduate in college. He has published numerous research studies, scientific presentations, and book chapters in injury prevention, acute emergency care, and emergency response.

Prior to his most recent confirmation, Dr. Runge held the title of Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is board-certified in Emergency Medicine. Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Dr. Runge practiced and taught emergency medicine, as Assistant Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine, at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. He was also the Director of the Carolinas Center for Injury Prevention and Control, where he spearheaded injury prevention initiatives that were national in scope.

Dr. Runge has served in numerous leadership positions in various local, regional, and national professional organizations. In North Carolina, he served as Speaker of the North Carolina Medical Society and President of the North Carolina College of Emergency Physicians.

Dr. Runge earned his Bachelor of Arts (Magna cum Laude) in 1977 from The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and received his Doctor of Medicine from the Medical University of South Carolina in 1981. He was honored as "Distinguished Alumnus" by both alma maters, The University of the South in 2005 and the Medical University of SC in 2006.

Dr. Runge and his wife of 27 years, Ginny, have two children, Emily, in graduate school at Belmont University in Nashville, TN, and Will, in college at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.

This page was last reviewed/modified on January 18, 2008.