Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. was born on January 17, 1954, in Washington, D.C. He is the son of Senator Robert F. KennedyRobert F. KennedyRobert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) was an American politician and lawyer, a Democrat who served as U.S. attorney general and as a U.S. senator from New York; he was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968 while seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.Open the full entry and a nephew of President John F. KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy (1917–1963) was an American politician who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 to 1963. The youngest person elected president and the first Roman Catholic to hold the office, he was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963.Open the full entry.⁠[1][2]

Kennedy received a bachelor’s degree in American history and literature from Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry in 1976 and also attended the London School of Economics and Political ScienceLondon School of Economics and Political ScienceThe London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a specialist social science university in central London, founded in 1895 by members of the Fabian Society. It is known for research in economics, politics and social policy, and its alumni and staff include many Nobel laureates and national leaders.Open the full entry; he earned a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1981, was admitted to the New York state bar in 1985 and received a master’s degree in environmental law from Pace University in 1987.⁠[1]

Kennedy became an assistant district attorney in Manhattan in 1982. He volunteered with the Hudson River Fishermen’s Association and in 1985 began working as an attorney for the environmental nonprofit Riverkeeper, where he became chief prosecuting attorney; he was also a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. In 1987 he co-founded an environmental litigation clinic at Pace University.⁠[1][2]

In 1999 Kennedy co-founded the Waterkeeper Alliance and served as its president for 21 years; his Department of Health and Human Services biography says it grew into a clean-water nonprofit with branches in 40 countries.⁠[1][2]

From 2016 Kennedy was chief legal counsel and board chair of the World Mercury Project, which was renamed Children’s Health Defense in 2018; his Department of Health and Human Services biography says the organization focuses on the rise in autism and other childhood chronic conditions.⁠[1][2]

Kennedy announced a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in April 2023 and on October 9, 2023, announced that he would run as an independent. On August 23, 2024, in Phoenix, ArizonaArizonaArizona is a state in the southwestern United States; its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1912, as the 48th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 7,151,502.Open the full entry, he announced that he was suspending his campaign.⁠[1][2][3]

On November 14, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced in a statement on Truth Social that he had chosen Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.⁠[4]

The Senate Finance Committee approved Kennedy’s nomination 14–13. On February 13, 2025, the Senate confirmed him as secretary of health and human services by a vote of 52–48 (roll-call vote No. 52); all yeas came from Republicans, and the nays came from 45 Democrats, 2 independents and Republican senator Mitch McConnell.⁠[5][6]

The same day Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch administered the oath in the Oval Office, and Kennedy became the 26th U.S. secretary of health and human services. Donald Trump then signed the executive order “Establishing the President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission,” creating a commission to investigate and address the root causes of the nation’s health crisis, with a focus on childhood chronic disease.⁠[7]

On March 27, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a reorganization under which its full-time workforce would be reduced from 82,000 to 62,000, its divisions consolidated from 28 to 15 and its regional offices cut from 10 to 5, with a new Administration for a Healthy America combining OASH, HRSA, SAMHSA, ATSDR and NIOSH.⁠[8]

A summary of 18 months in office released by the Department of Health and Human Services on August 21, 2026, lists among its actions the launch in March 2025 of Operation Stork Speed to review the safety and nutrition of infant formula, measures begun by the Food and Drug Administration in April 2025 to phase out petroleum-based synthetic dyes, and a drug price transparency rule in September 2025.⁠[9]

As of November 2026, both the leadership page of the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House cabinet page list Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services.⁠[10][11]

Kennedy’s books include The Riverkeepers (1997, with John Cronin), Crimes Against Nature (2004), Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak (2014), The Real Anthony Fauci (2021) and A Letter to Liberals (2022).⁠[1]

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Official website: https://www.hhs.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

X: Public account: https://x.com/SecKennedy (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/secretarykennedy/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

The White House: Official website: https://www.whitehouse.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[11]