Shalala, Donna E. (Donna Edna), 1941-

Donna Edna Shalala (born February 14, 1941) is an American politician and academic. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Clinton administration and represented Florida's 27th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2019 to 2021.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, she attended West Technical High School before receiving a bachelor's degree in 1962 from Western College for Women. From 1962 to 1964, she was among the first volunteers to serve in the Peace Corps. In 1970, Shalala began her teaching career as a political science professor at Baruch College. In 1972, Shalala became a professor of politics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, a post she held until 1979. Concurrently, from 1977 to 1980, she served as the assistant secretary for policy development and research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Carter Administration.

Shalala's first experience with academic administration came on October 8, 1980, when she became the tenth president of Hunter College, serving in this capacity until 1988. Shalala next served as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1988–1993). She served as the 18th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001. In 2001, Shalala joined the boards of UnitedHealth and Lennar, where over the following decade she earned millions of dollars.

Shalala served as President of the University of Miami, a private university in Coral Gables, Florida, from 2001 through 2015. She served as President of the Clinton Foundation from 2015 to 2017. Shalala was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 election, in a district which includes just over half of Miami as well as some of its eastern suburbs, that had been represented by a retiring Republican. She was defeated in the 2020 general election by former newscaster Maria Elvira Salazar, Shalala's 2018 opponent, in an upset.