David Jonathon Shulkin, born on July 22, 1959, at Fort Sheridan U.S. Army base in Highland Park, Illinois, to Jewish parents Mark Weiss Shulkin (an Army psychiatrist) and Sonya Lee Shulkin (née Edelman), both of whose fathers fought in World War I. He earned a BA from Hampshire College in 1982 and an MD from the Medical College of Pennsylvania (now part of Drexel University) in 1986, followed by medical training including an internship at Yale School of Medicine, residency and fellowship in General Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh's Presbyterian Medical Center, and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar position at the University of Pennsylvania. Shulkin built a distinguished healthcare career, serving as Chief Medical Officer at institutions including the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, Temple University Hospital, and Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital; Chairman of Medicine and Vice Dean at Drexel University College of Medicine; Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine; editor of Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management and Hospital Physician; and on editorial boards such as the Journal of the American Medical Association. He founded and led DoctorQuality, Inc. (1999, later failed), served as President and CEO of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City and Morristown Medical Center, and as Vice President of Atlantic Health System Accountable Care Organization. Awards include recognition as one of Modern Healthcare's '100 Most Influential People in American Healthcare' (#86 in 2008). Married to dermatologist Merle Bari, with whom he has two children, Daniel and Jennifer. In government service, he was appointed Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health on July 6, 2015, serving until February 13, 2017, under Presidents Obama and Trump, and then as Secretary of Veterans Affairs from February 14, 2017, to March 28, 2018, under Trump—the first non-veteran in the role, confirmed unanimously by the Senate 100-0, overseeing over 350,000 employees and 1,700 facilities, and acting as designated survivor for Trump's 2017 joint address to Congress. He was dismissed by Trump via tweet on March 28, 2018. His tenure involved controversies, including a 2017 European trip to a Five Eyes conference where he and his wife spent time sightseeing (e.g., Wimbledon, canal cruise), with VA costs exceeding $122,000 including $4,300+ for her airfare (later reimbursed); a 2018 Inspector General report criticized staff for misleading ethics officials, though no fraud was found and DOJ declined prosecution. Shulkin opposed VA privatization efforts in a New York Times editorial, directed outsourcing of optometry and audiology services to private care, and implemented stricter approvals for employee settlements. Post-government, he founded Shulkin Solutions, LLC, authored Questions Patients Need to Ask: Getting the Best Healthcare (2008) and It Shouldn't Be This Hard to Serve Your Country: Our Broken Government and the Plight of Veterans (2019), and is associated with Alvarez & Marsal. Active on social media including X/Twitter (@DavidShulkin, @SecShulkin archived) and LinkedIn (Shulkin Solutions). In 2019-2020, lawsuits compelled him to turn over private emails used for government business.