Cybele Bjorklund is head of policy at Sanofi, a global health care company focused on meeting patient needs through the development of innovative vaccine, biologic and pharmaceutical products. In this role, Cybele oversees global policy and leads efforts to develop and implement positions and relationships that support Sanofi’s strategic objectives, including improving access to care and health outcomes.
Cybele is a Fellow of the second class of the Aspen Institute’s Health Innovators Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. She also serves as Distinguished Visitor at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University’s Law Center and a Senior Fellow at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. During 2015-2016, she was a council member at GLG, a member of the International Advisory Council for APCO Public Affairs and an independent strategic advisor.
From 1995-2015, Cybele served in several senior professional roles in the United States Senate and House of Representatives, including 14 years as the Democratic staff director for the Subcommittee on Health and senior health advisor for the Committee on Ways & Means, and four years as Senator Kennedy’s deputy staff director for health. During her federal service, Cybele was at the center of virtually every major Medicare debate, had a leading role in the creation and enactment of the Affordable Care Act, and helped write many other laws affecting private health insurance and key federal health programs. Before moving to Congress, she was a social science research analyst at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services within the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Cybele serves on the Policy Advisory Committee for the Medicare Rights Center, is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, and is on the board of directors for the David A. Winston Health Policy Fellowship. She received a master’s degree from The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Hygiene and Public Health, with an emphasis on health policy and a concentration in law, ethics, and policy, and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the School of Journalism at the University of Oregon.