Amy Gleason, Not Elon Musk, Is Acting Administrator Of Trump's DOGE

So far, the identity of who was technically running DOGE had remained a mystery, even though an executive order signed by President Trump last month called for the appointment of an administrator who would report to the White House.

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Amy Gleason worked in the first Trump administration.
Washington, DC:

The Trump administration has finally identified the administrator of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been pushing agencies to fire employees, cancel contracts and make other budget cuts. The White House on Tuesday afternoon said Amy Gleason, a former US Digital Service official, is the acting leader of billionaire Elon Musk-led DOGE.

Although DOGE's cost-cutting measures are being championed by billionaire Elon Musk and his associates, the White House has insisted that Mr Musk is overseeing the effort just as a senior adviser to President Donald Trump-- and not a DOGE employee.

So far, the identity of who was technically running DOGE had remained a mystery, even though an executive order signed by President Trump last month called for the appointment of an administrator who would report to the White House. 

The announcement came as more than 20 members of the former United States Digital Service--an agency that has been renamed the US DOGE Service-- resigned on Tuesday with a letter criticizing Mr Musk for working to "dismantle critical public services."

Who Is  Amy Gleason?

Ms Gleason is a low-profile executive who has expertise in healthcare technology and worked in the first Trump administration. The 53-year-old was an employee of United States Digital Service from 2018 through 2021, according to her LinkedIn profile. 

In that role, she worked with the White House on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. Ms Gleason returned to the agency in January after Mr Trump took office.

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Her LinkedIn profile shows that Ms Gleason has a consulting firm, Gleason Strategies. She has also been a longtime advocate of curing a condition called juvenile myositis, a rare autoimmune disease that can cause muscle weakness and a skin rash in children, which affects her now-adult daughter.

Ms Gleason shared her frustrations with how the healthcare system handles such diseases in a 2020 TED talk and called for technology and data changes that could help patients and doctors.

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She also worked as vice president for research at the Cure JM Foundation from 2014 to 2018 and was a co-founder and executive at Care Sync, a telehealth company based in Florida, her LinkedIn profile showed. 

In the interim, she has been working as "chief product officer" at two small Nashville-based healthcare startups, Russell Street Ventures and Main Street Health. Both companies were founded by healthcare entrepreneur Brad Smith, who worked in the first Trump administration in several key healthcare roles and has also been working on the DOGE initiative, according to a report by the Associated Press.

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The website of Russell Street Ventures was deleted recently, but as per the AP report, the company has called itself "an innovative healthcare firm focused on launching and scaling companies that serve some of the nation's most vulnerable and underserved patient populations."

Meanwhile, Main Street Health says it works with primary care physicians in rural areas to provide clinics "with the data and opportunities they need to succeed in value-based care."

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The company's website has deleted Ms Gleason's biography, but an archived version shows that she "spearheaded technology efforts for the federal COVID-19 response" and worked on projects with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

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