Who is Amy Gleason, the supposed “real” head of Elon Musk’s D.O.G.E?

Amy Gleason has been named acting administrator of D.O.G.E, but nobody knows what she actually does. The White House made the announcement, but when pressed for details, officials had nothing. 

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, who is just a special government employee, still gets called the one in charge. Even Donald Trump referred to D.O.G.E as “headed by Elon Musk,” raising new legal questions about who’s really running the agency.

It took weeks before the administration even confirmed Amy’s role. Lawyers representing the White House couldn’t answer who was actually in charge, and only after being put on the spot did the administration name Amy as the acting administrator.

Since then, she hasn’t made any public statements, and neither D.O.G.E nor the White House have provided any real insight into what’s happening inside the agency. Elon constantly pushes the idea of transparency, but D.O.G.E is operating in the dark.

If Amy is supposed to be leading D.O.G.E, Elon isn’t acting like it. The billionaire still appears to control the agency’s direction, despite not technically holding the top job.

His special government employee status lets him be involved without officially being in charge, allowing him to sidestep a lot of the regulations that would usually apply to someone in his position.

The White House’s silence on this only fuels speculation. If Amy is leading the agency, why isn’t she answering questions? If Elon isn’t, why does Trump keep saying he is?

“It’s exactly the kind of person you need in a role like this,” said Dr. Gregg Alexander, a pediatrician in London, Ohio, who has known Amy for about 20 years. But while some believe in her abilities, others worry that she might be unknowingly facilitating budget cuts to federal health programs that she once supported.

Amy’s past in healthcare and government tech

Before D.O.G.E, Amy spent years in healthcare technology. She started as an ER nurse, but when her daughter, Morgan, started showing unexplained muscle weakness and rashes, she realized the system wasn’t built to track complex cases properly. It took over a year to get a diagnosis: juvenile dermatomyositis, a rare autoimmune disease.

That experience pushed Amy into health data technology. She co-founded CareSync, a company that worked on medical record management, and later joined the U.S. Digital Service, an agency under both the Trump and Biden administrations. She worked on electronic medical records, and pandemic response data, and helped improve healthcare tracking tools.

“If a doctor had seen all of these visits and activity on one single screen put together, they probably would have wondered why this 10- or 11-year-old is going to the doctor all the time,” Amy said in a 2020 TEDx talk.

From 2021 to 2024, she held executive roles at Main Street Health and Russell Street Ventures, two health-focused startups. The connection to Russell Street Ventures is notable because its founder, Brad Smith, was an early D.O.G.E insider and a key figure in Elon’s cost-cutting plans for the agency.

D.O.G.E’s potential impact on health funding

Now, Amy is in a position that could affect programs she once fought for. D.O.G.E is proposing major budget cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), both of which fund research for rare diseases like her daughter’s.

James Minow, executive director of Cure JM Foundation, where Amy was once a board member, said the stakes are high. “Obviously, Cure JM is wanting to do everything we can to protect NIH’s investment.”

Despite being described as apolitical, Amy is now working inside an agency that is openly pushing for government downsizing. Some of her former colleagues say they were shocked by her appointment. One health IT worker, who has known Amy for 15 years, said, “To go from such a position of kindness to a position that eliminates jobs for thousands of working parents seems like such a dichotomy in values.”

Her career has always been about healthcare efficiency, but now she’s leading an agency that might cut vital research. Whether she actually has a say in it, or whether Elon is the one making the real calls, remains unclear. The only thing that’s certain is that D.O.G.E isn’t answering any questions.

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