Photo of Director, Public Health AmeriCorps

Director, Public Health AmeriCorps

AJ Pearlman joins AmeriCorps from the Department of Health and Human Services, where she served as the chief of staff for COVID-19 response, leading efforts across the department to address and respond to the pandemic. Previously, she served as the health lead for the personnel appointments team in support of the Biden-Harris Presidential transition. Before joining the transition team, Pearlman was the senior director of city partnerships at KABOOM!, where she worked to develop multi-year public-private partnerships with municipal systems and community leaders to address disparities in access to play for kids and communities of color across the country. She also worked at HHS in several roles previously, including as the chief of staff and senior advisor in the Office for Civil Rights and as a senior advisor in the Division of Home Visiting and Early Childhood Systems at the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Pearlman has served in many public health positions including associate director for policy for former First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign Let’s Move!. During her time with the Obama Administration, Pearlman led interagency efforts to make health and wellness resources available to youth throughout the nation. She received her juris doctorate from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University and her bachelor’s in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles.