The White House on Wednesday will tap the head of a prominent New Jersey medical center and an outside information technology expert to fill a pair of high-ranking Veterans Affairs Department leadership posts, sources familiar with the announcement said.
Dr. David Shulkin, president of Morristown Medical Center, has been was nominated to be VA's next under secretary for health, and LaVerne Council, CEO of Council Advisory Services, has been was nominated to take over as VA's assistant secretary for information and technology.
If confirmed by t he Senate, both individuals would fill leadership spots that have been vacant for months.
Shulkin's nomination comes after a search committee recommendation. The job he would fill was at the center of last year's patient wait time and data manipulation scandals, which forced the resignation of several top officials, including former VA health chief Robert Petzel and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.
Shulkin has served on a number of East Coast medical boards and organizations, including CEO of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York and Chief Medical Officer of several Philadelphia hospitals.
He also was founder of DoctorQuality Inc., a consumer-oriented health care information sharing venture.
Council is in line to take over a post vacant for two years, despite VA's goals of modernizing its systems and converting lingering paper records to digital files.
She has served on the board of trustees for the March of Dimes Foundation since 2011 and held top information and technology jobs at Johnson & Johnson, Dell and Ernst & Young.
VA Secretary Bob McDonald has laid out a number of customer service goals and benchmarks in recent months, in an effort to rehabilitate the image and operations of VA's medical services.
The announcements come less than a week after the White House established a new advisory committee of prominent business leaders and customer service experts to recommend ways for the department to "better meet the needs of veterans." That group will hold it's first meeting next month.
Congressional officials have not unveiled any timeline for confirmation hearings for the two new nominees.
Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award.
