After weeks of uncertainty and confusion about who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration, we finally have some clarity. A report from Semafor, which has been verified by several government sources, has revealed that Amy Gleason is now the acting administrator of DOGE. This raises an interesting question: Who exactly is Amy Gleason?
According to her LinkedIn profile, Gleason is a “Senior Advisor” at the United States Digital Service, which was restructured to become DOGE. She comes from a background in healthcare and was a co-founder of a telehealth company called CareSync, which is no longer in operation. Additionally, she has held the position of Chief Product Officer at a rural healthcare provider known as Main Street Health. Her experience is not limited to the private sector; Gleason has also worked as a “Digital Services Expert” at the United States Digital Service during both the Trump and early Biden administrations. Her work there included leading the development of a national COVID database and the creation of tools that used that data to help manage the federal response to the pandemic.
Gleason’s past achievements have not gone unnoticed. She was recognized as a “Champion of Change” by the Obama administration for her efforts to improve healthcare technology, including the digitalization of medical records. Furthermore, she has also served as the Vice President of Research at the Cure JM Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to researching and supporting families affected by Juvenile Myositis, a rare autoimmune disease found in children.
While Amy Gleason seems to be a reasonable and somewhat unconventional choice to lead an agency with which she has significant experience, it still leaves us wondering if she truly runs the department. Her name had been kept somewhat secret until recently, and this secrecy raises questions about her actual authority within DOGE.
Interestingly, when reporters from CBS News reached out to Gleason to inquire about her role on Tuesday, she mentioned that she was in Mexico. This brings up further questions about how she is managing her responsibilities—is she working remotely? And how does this fit into the Trump administration’s push for government employees to return to the office? It would be interesting to know what she highlighted in her email that asked for five things she accomplished during the past week. If she is indeed running DOGE, one might wonder about the dynamics between her and Elon Musk in that structure.
To clarify, this isn’t a criticism of Gleason personally. However, it’s notable that as recently as yesterday, lawyers at the Department of Justice were expressing uncertainty to a federal judge about who was leading DOGE. The same DOJ had declined to name the agency’s head in official court documents earlier this month. When asked directly by the press about who was serving as the DOGE administrator, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt provided a vague response that didn’t actually name anyone.
So, now we know that Amy Gleason is the acting administrator of DOGE. It would be interesting to find out what she wrote in her email detailing her accomplishments from the past week, as the leadership situation at DOGE remains somewhat unclear.