Garden Views E.92 Deep State? Healthcare

Deric Gilliard went from the civil rights and social justice space into the Federal governement, where he worked 25 years. He served under the past 5 administrations and is an expert in health care policy and communications. We discuss the Affordable Care Act, the art of legislation, the polarization of politics, and other topics.Deric A. Gilliard retired in 2022, after 25 years as a federal employee working withpolitical appointees in the Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations.Prior to his work as public affairs advisor to the HHS regional directors for the eightsoutheastern states, Gilliard served as the national communications director for Dr.King's organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Gilliard also workedin communications for two HBCUs and wrote for USA Today, Time, and the WichitaEagle-Beacon, and was an editor for the Atlanta Daily World. Gilliard is currentlyworking as a consultant with WSP, a multi-national company that was awarded a grantby the DOI to develop a National Park Service monument to honor and memorialize thecontributions of the 1961 Freedom Riders. He is a career communications professionaladept at strategic planning and the execution of communication strategies that promoteorganizational messaging and branding. Key policy issues within his portfolio includethe Affordable Care Act, maternal health, HIV/AIDS, SUDS, Medicaid expansion,healthcare access, COVID, diversity, and the CARES Act. A public speaker andhistorian, Gilliard spoke to the troops in Germany shortly before Desert Storm andserved as the first keynote speaker at the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, AL. Theson of military parents, Gilliard also served as the principal non-Muslim promoter of theMillion Man March, covered the Atlanta Missing and Murdered Children cases andworked with SCLC President Lowery to raise the issues of economic justice, voterredistricting, and the burning of the black churches. Gilliard authored his master’s thesison Joseph Echols Lowery and the Resurrection of the Southern Christian LeadershipConference. He is author of Living in the Shadows of a Legend: Unsung Heroes and'Sheroes' who Marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Earning his B.A. in Journalismat the University of Kansas and his M.A. in African-American Studies at Georgia StateUniversity, Gilliard is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., and the NationalAssociation of Black Journalists.