Deric Gilliard, the son of military parents, is a career communications professional. He recently concluded a 25-year career serving as the public and media affairs representative for presidential appointees on both sides of the aisles in the administrations of Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden. His work focused on the eight southeastern states, the largest U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) region in the nation. Region IV is the area of the country with the most racial and ethnic health disparities, the highest poverty rates, the lowest educational levels, the deepest scars from the lingering vestiges of slavery and Jane Crow, and the worst uninsured rates in the nation. Gilliard was at the center of HHS's work regarding the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the disparate approaches to COVID, the fight to improve black and brown maternal health care and the battle to get recalcitrant GOP governors to expand Medicaid. Before coming to HHS, Gilliard served as national communications director for Dr. King's organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, (SCLC), under President Joseph E. Lowery. Key areas of focus included voter education and registration, economic empowerment, educational tracking, hate crimes, empowering the black family and the burning of the black churches. Gilliard previously wrote for USA Today, Time magazine, the Wichita Eagle-Beacon and the Atlanta Daily World. Author of Living in the Shadows of a Legend: Unsung Heroes and 'Sheroes' who Marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Gilliard currently serves as a consultant, historian, and public speaker in the areas of civil rights and social justice. Gilliard is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. He earned his B.S. in Journalism at the University of Kansas and a M.A. in African American Studies at Georgia State University.