Joy Pritts joined the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in February 2010 as Chief Privacy Officer. Ms. Pitts provides critical advice to the Secretary and the National Coordinator in developing and implementing ONC’s HITECH privacy and security programs.

Prior to joining ONC, Ms. Pritts was on the faculty at Georgetown University where she held a joint appointment as a Senior Scholar with the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and as a Research Associate Professor with the Health Policy Institute. Her work has focused on the critical issues surrounding the privacy of health information and patient access to medical records at both the federal and state levels. She has written extensively on such topics as the HIPAA Privacy Rule, federal alcohol and substance abuse confidentiality laws, and the confidentiality of health information in research. She has worked closely with national consumer organizations and federal policymakers on ensuring the protection of health information. Ms. Pritts has most recently participated in a number of federal HIT initiatives including serving on the Technical Advisory Panel for the multi-state Health Information Security and Privacy Collaborative (HISPC) and as a board member of the National Governors Association’s State Alliance for e-Health.

Ms. Pritts holds a law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College.