VIDEO: Sheila Burke on pushing health care decisions through the U.S. Congress

Sheila Burke was chief of staff to Sen. Bob Dole, from 1986 to 1996, when he was Senate minority and then the majority leader. In 1995, she was elected as secretary of the Senate, the chief administrative officer of the U.S. Senate. Starting as a member of the staff of the Senate Finance Committee in 1978, she was responsible for legislation relating to Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs. Burke became deputy staff director of the committee in 1982 and deputy chief of staff to the Senate majority leader in 1985. She served as a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission from 2000 to 2007, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kaiser Family Foundation, from 1999 to 2008, serving as chair of the board from 2005 to 2008. She currently is a research fellow and faculty member, Harvard Kennedy School, Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, and a senior public policy adviser, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz.