Steven L. Lieberman, MD, MBA, FACHE, FACP currently serves as the Acting Under Secretary for Health for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), leading the nation’s largest integrated health care system and overseeing care for over nine million Veterans. VHA is also the largest provider of graduate medical education and a major contributor to medical research.
Dr. Lieberman has held this role twice since July 2021, currently managing a budget of more than $145 billion and driving efforts to reduce Veteran suicide, end homelessness, and improve access to care across both VA direct and community care systems. In this role, he also overseen both the largest graduate medical education program in the country – training over 120,000 health professionals – and one of the largest medical research portfolios in the U.S.
Previously, he served as Deputy Under Secretary for Health, where he led strategic initiatives, and collaborated with senior leaders across and outside VA. He also served as Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Health during the COVID-19 pandemic and as Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Access to Care, where he led nationwide efforts to improve clinic management, scheduling, and wait time policies.
A board-certified Pulmonary and Critical Care physician with more than 25 years of service in VHA, Dr. Lieberman previously held leadership roles including Associate Chief of Staff for Quality Management and Deputy Chief of Staff at the VA Boston Health Care System, and Chief of Staff at the VA New Jersey Health Care System. Dr. Lieberman’s notable accomplishments include integrating two VA facilities into the VA Boston Health Care System, leading VA’s Federal Medical Station missions following Hurricanes Rita and Gustave, and co-chairing the national MyVA Access Sequester Team. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and the American College of Physicians, and has served on the VA Regent’s Advisory Council and the Physician Executives Forum Committee.