Kody H. Kinsley

Kody Kinsley, MPP, served as North Carolina’s 18th Secretary of Health and Human Services under Governor Roy Cooper, unanimously confirmed by the North Carolina Senate. Kinsley played a pivotal role in expanding Medicaid through bipartisan collaboration with the General Assembly, resulting in over 600,000 North Carolinians gaining coverage in the first year—twice the expected pace. He secured one of the largest behavioral health investments in state history — $835 million — and major policy reforms to expand access to mental health and substance use services. He implemented North Carolina’s groundbreaking Healthy Opportunities Pilots — the nation’s first large-scale experiment proving that paying for non-medical health needs, like food and housing improves health and lowers cost. In partnership with all of the state’s hospitals, Kinsley provided $6.5 billion in medical debt relief for 2.5 million North Carolinians. His career includes roles at the White House, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he was appointed by President Barack Obama and continued under President Donald Trump as Assistant Secretary for Management. Secretary Kinsley currently serves as a senior consultant at the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy and senior policy advisor at Johns Hopkins University Institute of Policy Solutions.