Catherine Dodd

Catherine has worked in the areas of health policy and politics for more than 25 years. Most recently, Catherine served as the director of the City and County of San Francisco Health Service System, where she negotiated and administered health benefits for more than 112,000 county, school district and community college district active and retired employees and their dependents. Prior to leading the health service system, she worked for Mayor Newsom as deputy chief of staff for Health and Human Services responsible for overseeing key initiatives such as “Shape Up San Francisco,” working to eliminate sex trafficking, identifying ways to reduce alcohol use in the Tenderloin, enhancing opportunities for children, improving access to fresh food throughout the city, planning for services for the elderly, and preventing domestic violence.

Prior to joining Mayor Newsom’s staff, Catherine served on the San Francisco Health Commission overseeing a $1.3 billion budget. During the President Clinton’s second term, she served as a presidential appointee under Health and Human Services Secretary Shalala as Region IX director covering AZ, NV, CA, HI and the United States jurisdictions in the Western Pacific region. She was district chief of staff to Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and worked for two members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Catherine’s civic and community involvement includes serving on the boards of directors of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare; the Breast Cancer Fund, a national environmental health advocacy organization focused on preventing breast cancer; the Glide Foundation, a social service organization serving San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, the Homeless Prenatal Program, a health and social service program helping homeless families establish stability; and the Zen Hospice Project, assisting terminally ill people and their families.

Catherine has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area her entire life passing up career opportunities to stay close to and care for her aging relatives. She has been with her partner Mary Foley RN, PhD, for 20 years and they have two big dogs.

*Independent voting board member