WASHINGTON — When her daughter was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease in 2010, Amy Gleason attacked the challenge.
She carried binders of medical records to doctors' appointments across six health systems seeking the best care for juvenile dermatomyositis. She volunteered at a nonprofit searching for a cure. She also started a health care company to create record-sharing software that would make life easier for chronically ill patients and families.
Within five years, President Barack Obama’s White House recognized Gleason as a ‘’Champion of Change'' in the industry. When the coronavirus struck in 2020, she was a health care technologist in the first Trump White House who worked grueling hours building data systems to guide the federal response. (And her daughter was a thriving college student.)
Now, her journey has improbably led to President Donald Trump naming her the acting administrator of the U.S. DOGE Service, a position that seems to convey extraordinary power. Except almost no one has heard of her and everyone knows the man the president says is actually leading the unparalleled effort to gut the federal workforce and shutter agencies: Elon Musk.
Gleason’s role at DOGE is unclear
While Musk has claimed his Department of Government Efficiency is fully transparent, until last week the White House press secretary would not even say Gleason’s name — which does not appear on the DOGE website.
In his address to Congress Tuesday, Trump made clear that Musk is in charge, saluting him as the head of DOGE, with Musk smiling down on the president from the visitors' gallery. Yet government lawyers have argued in court that Gleason and not Musk is the agency’s leader.
The confusion has added to the mystery around the role of Gleason, who did not respond to a phone call or text message for comment.