Executive Director, Maryland Health Care Commission
Rex Cowdry serves as Executive Director of the Maryland Health Care Commission, an independent state agency responsible for health policy analysis, health care data collection, public reporting of quality and satisfaction measures, health system planning and certificate of need, oversight of the small group market and its standardized health benefit plan, and state health information technology policy.
He previously served as Associate Director of the White House National Economic Council, where he worked on a range of health policy issues, including health information technology, health savings accounts, and health insurance tax credits. He graduated from Yale College in 1968, earned his MD and Master of Public Health degrees from Harvard, and completed a residency in Psychiatry at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center. He joined the research staff of the National Institutes of Health in 1976, where he conducted clinical research on mood disorders and personality disorders, and served as the Clinical Director and Acting Director of the NIMH. Since leaving the NIH, he has served as Senior Scientific Advisor to the American Association of Health Plans, as Medical Director and Deputy Executive Director for Research of NAMI, and as Consultant to the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
