Carolyn Byrnes, MPH, CPH is a Senior
Advisor to the Secretary of Health and Physician General for Pennsylvania. She
has served as a Senior Advisor since 2018, and previously as Special Assistant
to the Secretary of Health. Since joining the Pennsylvania Department of Health
in 2015 Ms. Byrnes has worked on a myriad of public health issues, including
improving maternal and child health, addressing health equity issues, and
responding to the opioid epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic. Her efforts to improve
maternal health include Act 24 of 2018 establishing the Pennsylvania Maternal
Mortality Review Committee (MMRC), securing millions in federal funding to
support the MMRC, and establishing Pennsylvania as a member of the Alliance for
Innovation in Maternal Health.
Prior to her time at the department, Ms. Byrnes worked as a Clinical Research Associate at Roswell Park Cancer Institute’s Department of Cancer Prevention and Control in Buffalo, NY, managing the daily operations of a clinical trial from 2012 to 2015.
She currently serves as a member of Pennsylvania MMRC, the Pennsylvania Perinatal Quality Collaborative Advisory Board and Policy Group, the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine, the Pennsylvania Osteopathic Board of Medicine, the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Advisory Board, and the Pennsylvania Lyme and Other Tickborne Diseases Interagency Workgroup.
Ms. Byrnes received her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh, and her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Loyola University Chicago. She is certified in Public Health by the National Board of Public Health Examiners.