ISSUED: 11 May 2015
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Dr. Marcia K. Brand, vice chair of the Shepherd University Board of Governors, delivered the commencement address at her alma mater Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, Saturday, May 9. She was awarded a doctorate of humane letters honorary degree.
Brand delivered her address, titled “Work Worth Doing,” to the Batten College of Engineering and Technology, the College of Health Sciences, and the College of Sciences. Brand told the graduates to be open to new roles as they embark on their careers and to be kind in the workplace. She stressed the importance of mentors and of being “a trusted, respectful, and supportive colleague.”
Brand is the executive director of the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health and a consultant and advisor on matters related to access to oral and rural health care.
From 2009 until 2015, Brand was the deputy administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that works to fill in the gaps for people who live outside the economic and medical mainstream. The agency uses its $9 billion annual budget to expand access to quality health care in partnership with health care providers and health professions training programs.
From 2007-2009, Brand was associate administrator of HRSA’s Bureau of Health professions, where she provided national leadership in the development, distribution, and retention of a diverse, culturally competent health workforce that provides high-quality care.
Previously, Brand was director and associate administrator of HRSA’s Office of Rural Health Policy from 2001-2007. In that position, she was responsible for health policy, research, and grant activities that promote better health care services in rural America. In previous federal appointments, she led efforts to plan and implement the State Planning Grant Program, which helped states explore options in providing health care coverage for uninsured residents, and coordinated HRSA’s efforts to implement the Children’s Health Insurance Program. As senior advisor to the deputy assistant secretary for health, Brand worked on the Secretary’s Initiative on the Future of Academic Health Centers.
Brand worked in the U.S. Senate as a legislative assistant and held academic appointments in the dental hygiene departments at Thomas Jefferson University and Old Dominion University.
A Martinsburg native, Brand has been a member of Shepherd’s Board of Governors for four years.
Brand, who earned her bachelor of science and master of science degrees in dental hygiene from Old Dominion, holds a Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania.
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