Aldona Wos

Aldona Zofia Wos (born March 26, 1955) is a Polish-American former physician and Republican politician who served in various positions at several government agencies under Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump and nonprofit organizations.

Aldona Wos was born in 1955 in Warsaw, where she lived until the age of six, when her family moved to Long Island, New York.

Wos earned a medical degree from Medical University of Warsaw.

She returned to New York to complete her residency and a fellowship with a specialty in lung diseases.

Wos practiced medicine in Manhattan for eighteen years.

In 1997, Wos left her medical practice and moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, with her husband Louis DeJoy, who was CEO of New Breed Logistics Inc. from 1983 to 2014.

In North Carolina, she and her husband have organized and hosted fundraisers for a number of national and state-level political campaigns, and have been significant contributors to several Republican candidates.

Wos raised nearly $1 million for the campaign to elect Elizabeth Dole to the U.S. Senate in the 2002 elections and served as vice chairwoman of George W. Bush's North Carolina fundraising organization.

In May 2002, Wos was appointed to a seat on the board of directors of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

She was the United States Ambassador to Estonia from 2004 until early December 2006, the fifth since the country regained its independence in 1991.

President Bush re-appointed her to second term on the council beginning in 2004.

In June 2004, President Bush appointed her the U.S. Ambassador to Estonia.

She was sworn in on August 13, 2004.

As ambassador, she helped organize the state visit of President Bush to Estonia, which took place on 27th and 28 November 2006.

For her efforts in facilitating US cooperation with the Estonian police, she was awarded a special police medal, given to her by Raivo Aeg, the head of the Estonian Police.

She left her diplomatic post in December 2006.

In March 2007, Polish President Lech Kaczynski awarded Wos the Commander Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

Wos was part of the second campaign to elect Pat McCrory as Governor of North Carolina.

In May 2011, she hosted a luncheon for the Women for Pat McCrory in the lead-up to the former Mayor of Charlotte's announcement as a Republican candidate for the 2012 North Carolina gubernatorial election.

She later served as co-chairwoman for the campaign and after McCrory's win, she was a part of his transition team.

In June 2012, Wos was appointed to the board of governors of the University of North Carolina by the state's Republican-controlled General Assembly.

In December 2012, North Carolina Governor-elect Pat McCrory announced that Wos will be a member of his Cabinet as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

Wos declined her $128,000 salary and was instead paid a token $1.

From 2013 until 2015, she was Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

On January 31, 2013, a performance audit was released, criticizing the previous administration's lack of record keeping concerning various funds, as well as naming other budgetary problems.

Wos released her responses to the audit in an appendix, agreeing on all points with the auditor, including the conclusion that DHHS had consistently exceeded budgeted amounts for administrative costs due to lack of oversight by the previous administration.

When speaking to the General Assembly in February 2013, Wos laid out her department priorities as "Medicaid and information technology."

In April 2013, Wos announced the governor's plan to overhaul the Medicaid system in North Carolina which she and McCrory criticized as "broken".

This early plan would have brought in a few "entities — likely including private companies — to function as insurance companies for Medicaid recipients."

These entities would operate state-wide and serve as insurance plans from which Medicaid recipients can choose.

The plan faced criticism from healthcare professionals who were concerned that it would permit "out-of-state and for-profit providers to get a major foothold in North Carolina, rather than letting proven in-state and nonprofit providers, such as Community Care of N.C., take the lead".

At least one public health expert alleged that the Medicare crisis was contrived in order to justify privatization.

Additionally, an investigation in North Carolina Health News alleged that McCrory, Wos and Medicaid head Carol Stickel withheld information that would have shown that North Carolina Medicaid administrative costs were lower than those of most other states, rather than 30% higher as alleged by the McCrory administration.

The overhaul plan suffered an additional setback when the person hired to spearhead it, Carol Steckel, resigned in September 2013 to join the private sector.

The state chose not to implement the proposed plans.

In July 2013, DHHS went live with its NCTracks system for managing Medicaid billings, a system contracted in 2008 under the previous administration.

From 2017 to 2021, Wos served as vice-chairwoman of the President's Commission on White House Fellowships, which is tasked with reviewing candidates for White House fellowships.

She is married to USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

Wos is the daughter of Wanda and Paul Zenon Wos.

Her father was part of the Home Army during the German and Soviet occupation of Poland in World War II.