1989-02-21
The President today announced the appointment of William L. Roper to be Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Director of the White House Office of Policy Development.
Since 1986 Dr. Roper has served as Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In this position, he has directed all Federal health care financing programs under Medicare and Medicaid. Prior to HHS, Dr. Roper served at the White House, where he was Special Assistant to the President for Health Policy from 1983 to 1986. From 1977 to 1983, Dr. Roper was health officer of the Jefferson County Department of Health in Birmingham, AL, serving also from 1981 as assistant State health officer. Between 1979 and 1983, he served in several positions on the faculty of the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the school of public health, department of pediatrics, and the graduate program in hospital and health administration. On leave from his Alabama health position, he was a White House fellow in the White House Office of Policy Development from 1982 to 1983, with responsibility for health policy.
Dr. Roper was born July 6, 1948, in Birmingham, AL. He received an associate of arts degree from Florida College in 1968; a bachelor of science degree from the University of Alabama in 1970, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa; a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in 1974, where he was president of his class all 4 years; and his M.P.H. from that institution's school of public health in 1981. He is board certified in pediatrics and in preventive medicine and is licensed to practice medicine in Alabama. Dr. Roper resides in Arlington, VA, with his wife Maryann Roper, a pediatric oncologist.
