About the IAPP

Maya A. Bernstein is the Senior Advisor for Privacy Policy in the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her work includes policy development across the breadth of HHS activities, such as health IT, HIPAA and administrative simplification, the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, human subjects research, social welfare, cybersecurity, insider threats, and human resources. Most recently she advises on access to COVID-19 data and sits on the Secretary’s post-Dobbs task force on protection of sexual and reproductive health.

In the spring of 2018, Maya was deployed by HHS to Puerto Rico on the Hurricane Maria Recovery effort where she worked in FEMA’s Joint Field Office in the Health and Social Services Sector. In May 2016, she completed a temporary assignment to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where she led a team that produced governance policy and data dissemination standards for CFPB’s public use data files.

Maya began her federal career at the Office of Management and Budget in 1990. She oversaw the Privacy Act of 1974 for nine years and was the lead OMB information policy analyst on expanding access to electronic mail, preservation of electronic records, and intellectual property. During that time, she was involved in major legislative matters of the Clinton era that continue to resonate today, including the development of the HIPAA legislation and HIPAA Privacy Rule, immigration policy, welfare reform, the Brady Bill, cybersecurity, and e-commerce policy. She chaired the precursor to the Federal Privacy Council on which she now sits as an appointed Member.

While at OMB, Maya earned a JD at American University, then clerked on the DC Court of Appeals, and briefly practiced law before returning to federal service in 2003 as the Privacy Advocate of the IRS. Maya holds a BA from the University of Michigan and studied at MIT’s program on Science, Technology & Society. In recognition of her distinguished career in government and service to the federal privacy community, the Federal Privacy Council awarded Maya its 2021 Award for Excellence.