The start of the Biden administration has signaled a changing of the guard throughout the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

For the FDA, Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn has stepped down and has been replaced by acting Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock. She joined the agency's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research in 1984 and held the position of Center for Drug Evaluation and Research director multiple times throughout her career. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Woodcock has participated in the government's "Operation Warp Speed."

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Richter has been named the interim head of CMS until a permanent choice is confirmed by the Senate. She has served with CMS since 1990, beginning with the Bureau of Policy Development, where she worked on inpatient hospital payment policy. She then worked on a variety of Medicare payment issues. Richter is succeeding outgoing Administrator Seema Verma.

In addition, Micky Tripathi has taken the mantle of the National Coordinator for Health IT from Dr. Don Rucker. An old hand when it comes to interoperability advocacy, Tripathi was the CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative and, most recently, the chief alliance officer at Arcadia.

Norris Cochran, deputy assistant secretary of budget at HHS, is returning to his temporary role as the acting Secretary of HHS. He briefly held the same position during the administration change in early 2017.

Mobile glucose management platform DarioHealth has announced a small handful of new appointments over the past couple of weeks.

The most recent is Chris Chan as its senior vice president of employer sales. He previously held the position of chief marketing officer at SleepQuest and was a founding member of Mercer LABS.

Looking back to Jan. 7, DarioHealth also tapped Claudia Rimerman Kraut as its VP of broker and consultant partnerships, a new role for the company. Previously the director of alliances at Omada Health, she'll be helping DarioHealth's employer sales team by heading their outreach through benefit consultancies.

Finally, DarioHealth added two new names for its scientific advisory board: Dr. Marilyn Ritholz, a psychologist at Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School affiliate, and Dr. David Horwitz, formerly the global chief medical officer of the Johnson and Johnson Diabetes Institute.

Digital family benefits company Cleo announced a slew of hires this week. It tapped Amy Kux as its next chief financial officer, Andrea Lessard as the new vice president of people and Martin Payne as the next chief commercial officer.

Kux has worked in the finance space for years and previously held roles at Cloudflare, Udemy and Unbable. Lessard comes from Red Bull, where she served as head of rewards and talent operations. Payne comes from her role as VP of enterprise sales as Bright Horizons.

“As a working parent that spent most of my career juggling my work and family responsibilities, Cleo’s mission to support working parents both inside and outside of the workplace is one that deeply resonates with me,” Kux said in a statement. “I love building amazing companies with phenomenal teams that solve real and pressing problems, and have joined Cleo because they are doing exactly that – and with great impact.”