Dr. Luis Padilla is the associate administrator for health workforce at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). HRSA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
BHW aims to better meet the need for a well-trained, well-distributed 21st century workforce by strengthening the health workforce and connecting skilled professionals to communities in need. With an annual appropriation of more than one billion, the bureau administers over 40 workforce programs.
BHW improves access to quality health care by developing, distributing, and retaining a high, quality and competent health workforce. The bureau supports the health care workforce across the entire training to service continuum – from academic training of students to clinicians currently providing health care in underserved and rural communities across the United States.
Dr. Padilla was appointed associate administrator for health workforce in May 2016 and previously served as deputy associate administrator. He also serves as director of the National Health Service Corps, BHW’s largest program, which in FY18 had a field strength of more than 10,900 clinicians nationwide serving more than 11 million people.
Prior to joining BHW, Dr. Padilla was senior health policy advisor to the CEO of Unity Health Care in Washington, D.C., a federally qualified health center network with over 100,000 patients. He also served as Unity’s research director and sought academic partnerships with an emphasis on community-based participatory research. A committed advocate for the underserved, Dr. Padilla is a former NHSC Scholar who completed his service at Upper Cardozo Health Center, where he became the medical director. He was also appointed to the National Advisory Council of the NHSC from 2007 to 2010.
A board certified family physician, Dr. Padilla received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of California at Irvine. He earned his medical degree from Wake Forest School of Medicine and completed his family medicine residency at Brown University.