March 15, 2011 Mary Mazanec Appointed Acting Director, Congressional Research Service

Contact: Donna Urschel (202) 707-1639 | Janine D’Addario, (202) 707-7153

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has appointed Mary B. Mazanec as acting director of the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The appointment of Mazanec, who has served since August 2010 as CRS deputy director, will be effective April 3. She will serve until the Librarian selects a new director. CRS Director Daniel P. Mulhollan will retire on April 2, after 17 years in the position.

“The position of CRS director is important to the United States Congress and the Library of Congress,” said Billington. “The director leads CRS in research and analysis that supports congressional deliberations on the issues facing the nation. As provided by statute, I will select a new permanent director in consultation with the Joint Committee on the Library,” he said.

Mazanec brings a breadth of experience to CRS in public policy, law and medicine. When selecting Mazanec for deputy director, Mulhollan said, “She has served in multiple leadership positions, and her accomplishments demonstrate her ability to integrate the insights of legal and scientific methods, which provide the bases for important aspects of CRS’s analytic work.”

Before joining CRS, Mazanec enjoyed a noteworthy tenure with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where she worked from 2002 to 2010. Most recently she served as a deputy assistant secretary and director of the Office of Medicine, Science and Public Health in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. Mazanec also brings to CRS congressional experience. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow, serving as a senior adviser to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Subcommittee on Public Health. Earlier in her career, she served as a senior policy analyst at the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC).

Mazanec received a bachelor’s degree in pre-med from the University of Notre Dame, summa cum laude; a master’s from Case Western Reserve University Medical School; and a Juris Doctorate from Case Western Reserve University Law School.

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PR 11-060
2011-03-15
ISSN 0731-3527