- Carmen Hooker Odom
Carmen Hooker Odom is the former secretary of the
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services . GovernorMike Easley appointed her Secretary in January 2001. Odom, a formerMassachusetts legislator and health care lobbyist, has spent her professional life working in health and human services. As a lawmaker, she was the primary legislative author of both the 1991 Massachusetts comprehensive health reform legislation and the Children's Medical Security Plan, which targeted young children not covered by medical insurance.In May 2007, Odom announced that she would resign as Secretary to become president of the
Milbank Memorial Fund . [http://www.newsobserver.com/100/story/570728.html]Prior to her appointment as head of the large state bureaucracy, she served as Vice President of Government Relations for
Quintiles Transnational Corporation inResearch Triangle Park . Odom served as the Group Vice President forCarolinas Healthcare System (CHS). She is also an Adjunct Professor at the UNC School of Public Health. She received a bachelor's degree in sociology and political science fromSpringfield College and a master's degree in regional planning from theUniversity of Massachusetts at Amherst .Odom moved to North Carolina in 1995 when her husband,
Michael Hooker , became chancellor of theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . After his death, she married former state senatorFountain Odom .External links
* [http://www.ncsu.edu/iei/pastforums2002/bios02.htm NC State University]
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