POLICY CHAMPIONS
Leaders shaping policy—at the state and/or federal level—to advance digital health at scale
Renee Węgrzyn
Inaugural Director
Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)
Dr. Renee Wegrzyn was appointed as the first director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) in October 2022. She has experience in both industry and government, most recently as a VP at Ginkgo Bioworks, as a Program Manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and as a technical advisor to the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). Wegrzyn received the Superior Public Service Medal for her work at DARPA. Before joining DARPA, she led teams in the biotech industry across a range of specialties including diagnostics and gene therapies. She holds doctoral and bachelor’s degrees in applied biology from Georgia Tech.
Q: What motivates you to continue working towards change each day?
A: Even in the short 2 years since ARPA-H has launched, it is clear that the new funding models and problem-centric approach we bring to transform the healthcare ecosystem as a federal funder is creating new paths to better health outcomes for everyone.
Q: What accomplishment(s) are you most proud of from 2023?
A: I am most proud of the work that the ARPA-H team did to stand up the agency from "zero-to-one". Its been an incredible adventure creating a start-up in the federal government—that doesn't happen every day!
