White House names Mina Hsiang to lead USDS

Mina Hsiang will serve as the next administrator of the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), the White House said on Thursday, becoming the first woman and Asian-American to serve in the role since the government technology unit was formed in 2014.

USDS, which part of the Office of Management and Budget at the White House, provides consulting for digital services delivery, agile acquisition and information technology modernization across IT and digital resources to federal customers.

Hsiang is a veteran of USDS – she joined in 2014 when the team launched and returned with the Biden-Harris administration. She served on the Biden-Harris transition team, focusing on the review of the Department of Health and Human Services and COVID-19 response before rejoining USDS as senior advisor for delivery and the lead of the team that stood up Vaccines.gov.

Hsiang's experience outside of government includes a post leading product development at health care tech company Optum and most recently as vice president of technology products and policy at Devoted Health.

In a statement, Hsiang suggested the COVID-19 pandemic placed a new emphasis on the importance of government technology and digital services for both civil servants and the public, which relies on those tools every day.

"Government services — and helping people access those services via many channels, including digitally — are more critical now than ever," Hsiang told Axios, which first reported the news of her appointment. "The pandemic has been a catalyst to our country's collective awareness of this truth and has mobilized people to step up and act."

The announcement comes just days after the White House launched a new two-year fellowship program called the U.S. Digital Corps for technologists, data scientists and early-career and entry-level software engineers looking to help improve government IT service delivery.