When Malia Shirley joined the Department of Health and Human Services in June 2025 as a White House liaison, she was charged with screening candidates for a critical health care panel that makes preventive care decisions affecting millions of Americans. She picked her dad for the job.
The Trump administration plans to appoint Mark Shirley as chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, NOTUS has learned. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has sharply criticized the panel and blocked it from meeting for more than a year.
Officials made the decision last fall to appoint Mark Shirley as a leader of the task force, well before it recently started a formal process to add new members to the panel, according to two sources familiar with the deliberations.