Leslie V. Norwalk

Leslie Norwalk is Strategic Counsel to Epstein Becker Green, P.C., EBG Advisors and National Health Advisors.  She serves as an advisor to several private equity firms, and currently sits on the boards of directors of Neurocrine Biosciences, Arvinas, NuVasive, Providence Service Corp., Magellan Health, and several privately held health care companies.  She is also a member of APCO Worldwide’s International Advisory Council.

Ms. Norwalk served the Bush Administration as the Acting Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).  She managed the day-to-day operations of Medicare, Medicaid, State Child Health Insurance Programs, Survey and Certification of health care facilities and other federal health care initiatives. For four years prior to that, she was the agency’s Deputy Administrator, responsible for the implementation of the hundreds of changes made under the Medicare Modernization Act, including the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit.

CMS has the second-largest budget outlay of the Federal Government, directly responsible for $1 out of every $3 spent on healthcare in the United States. The organization insures approximately a third of the population of the United States (more than 120 million beneficiaries) including the elderly, disabled, and some of the lowest income individuals in the country. CMS processes over one billion claims each year and contracts with approximately one million providers.

Prior to serving the Bush Administration, she practiced law in the Washington, D.C. office of Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. where she advised clients on a variety of health policy matters. She also served in the first Bush administration in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Ms. Norwalk, a native of Dayton, OH, earned a juris doctor degree from the George Mason University School of Law, where she was a Dean’s Scholar and an editor of the George Mason Law Review. She earned a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, in economics and international relations from Wellesley College.