During the ceremony, the former Secretary will be presented with the honorary Doctor of Science degree, recognizing her thoughtful leadership in managing the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Guilford trustees approved the honorary degree following a nomination process and endorsement by the faculty. 

In January, Mandy announced that she would enter the private sector as Executive Vice President of a health-care company, Aledade, and Chief Executive Officer of its new health-services unit, Aledade Care Solutions. 

“Guilford College is an institution that has conscientiously taught its students to advocate for the well-being of others and has recently developed a major in Public Health. It seems particularly fitting to grant former Secretary Cohen this honorary degree and have her speak to our graduating class,” says President Kyle Farmbry, who will participate in his first Commencement after joining the College in January. Read the president's statement about the Commencement speaker.

Guilford Biology Professor Michele Malotky, director of the College's growing Public Health major, says one of the few silver linings to the pandemic is that health officials like Mandy have made "science top of mind for a lot of people and students heading off to college."

Guilford's Public Health discipline, which will have a new director next year in Aleks Babić '07, has more than 30 Public Health majors and is one of the College's fastest growing programs.

Mandy was recognized as a national leader during her four years as the chief public health official in the administration of Gov. Roy Cooper. In the final two years, concluding in December 2021, she had a prominent role in encouraging North Carolinians to wear masks, stay 6 feet apart, wash hands, and get vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NCDHHS has 17,000 employees and an annual budget of $20 billion. Mandy and her team were focused on responding to and recovering from the pandemic, building a robust, efficient Medicaid program, improving early childhood health, safety, and education, combating the opioid crisis, and ensuring equitable access to health resources.

Before coming to NCDHHS, Mandy was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a federal agency headquartered in Baltimore. 

In February 2019, Modern Healthcare magazine named Mandy one of the Top 25 Women Leaders in Healthcare. She was awarded the Leadership in Public Health Practice Award from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2020. That award cited her use of data and ability to communicate with empathy, compassion and transparency. The Raleigh News and Observer named her Tar Heel of the Year in 2020 for her leadership during the pandemic.

A graduate of Cornell University, Mandy received her medical degree from Yale School of Medicine and a Master’s in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. She trained in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. She has served as an Adjunct Professor in Health Policy and Management at the UNC Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health.