Christen Linke Young

Christen Linke Young is a fellow with the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy. Previously, she was the principal deputy secretary for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, where she focused on developing cross-agency initiatives, implementing innovative policy solutions, and providing day-to-day operational leadership of the department. She also previously held a number of roles in the federal government.  She was Principal Deputy Director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, the agency within the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services that oversees private health insurance initiatives.  In addition, she served as the Senior Policy Advisor for Health at the White House and the Director of Coverage Policy in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Health Reform. She began her career in government as a policy analyst with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Young holds a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Stanford University and a law degree from Yale Law School.