Jane E. Henney: Bio

For the past 20 years, Dr. Jane Henney has served in a series of senior health-policy leadership positions in the public sector.

Beginning in 1980, she served for five years as the deputy director of the National Cancer Institute. Subsequently she joined the University of Kansas Medical Center as vice chancellor of health programs, and, for 18 months, interim dean of the School of Medicine.

From Kansas, she was recruited back to the federal sector and served as deputy commissioner for operations of the Food and Drug Administration, where she stayed until assuming the position as the first vice president for health sciences at the University of New Mexico. In l998 she was nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Commissioner of Food and Drugs of the U. S. Food and Drug Administration. She served in this capacity until January 2001.

Dr. Henney is a native of Indiana, growing up in the small community of Woodburn. She received her undergraduate degree from Manchester College, her medical degree from Indiana University, and completed her subspecialty training in medical oncology at the M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute and the National Cancer Institute.

Throughout her career, Dr. Henney has had the reputation as a fair, firm and forthright leader, who builds strong and responsive organizations. Her span of experience in managing complex organizations, whose public missions have ranged from providing direct health services, educating the next generation of health professionals, conducting biomedical research, to the science-based regulation of all products under the FDA’s jurisdiction have made her a sought-after speaker and adviser. Since leaving the FDA, she has been a senior scholar in residence at the Association of Academic Health Centers, and she has begun service on a wide variety of boards of directors in the health care field, including the Commonwealth Fund in New York City, the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, AmerisourceBergen Corporation in Philadelphia, AstraZeneca PLC in London, the Science Board of MPM.Capital in Boston, and the Advisory Group to the Pew Science and Society Institute.

Dr. Henney has received many honors and awards in her field including election to the National Academy of Science Institute of Medicine, the Society of Medical Administrators and honorary membership in the American College of Health Care Executives. She is a recipient of the Excellence in Women’s Health Award from The Jacobs Institute, the Public Health Leadership Award from the National Organization of Rare Disorders, the DHHS Secretary’s Recognition Award and on two separate occasions the PHS Commendation Medal.

In her leisure time, Dr. Henney has developed a strong interest in fly-fishing, where she has discovered that the pleasure is as much in the seeking as in the catching. She is also an avid reader of all genres of literature; close acquaintances are kept constantly updated as to her most recent “must read” finds. When she is not cooking or gardening she can be found at the fitness club enjoying the pleasure of her favorites: weight lifting and yoga. She lives in Bethesda, Md., with her spouse, Bob Graham, and their longhaired dachshund, Stover.

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