Success Stories
Gary C. Norman, Esq.: 2000 PMF
I started my public service career as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) in 2000 with the Federal Government after graduating from Wright State University and Cleveland State University, respectively. Long interested in biology, medicine, and indeed healthcare law, I obtained a posting at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, eventually performing a range of details or temporary assignments. I possess the unique brand of serving the public with a special sidekick, my guide dog Bowie.
Bowie, a black lab, is the third service animal I have worked with in my legal career. I have often been the sole person with a disability and with a service animal in the board room, or in the hearing room, or in another place of visibility. In 2002, I walked across a stage for the PMF program with my first guide dog, at once sensing the honor to complete the program but also the disparity in representation of disabled leaders. Then as now, our government and its pipeline programs must improve in recruiting, retaining, empowering, and elevating people with disabilities in the greatness that it is to be part of public service.
As a 2021 Leader in Diversity at the Baltimore Business Journal, I applaud the administration’s Executive Order on DEIA that expanded diversity work to include the important “A” of “Accessibility,” and in a broader sense, inclusion of people with disabilities.
I performed many inspiring details as a PMF often making personal or substantive policy impact. In the summer of my second year, I performed a temporary assignment as a legal advisor to the county agency for aging in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, working alongside staff and counseling the Director of the agency. Since the PMF program, my career has regularly and increasingly deepened and evolved, even with the barriers that I – and all lawyers with disabilities – confront.
In 2015, I served as a Visiting Fellow at the Robert J. Dole Institute for Politics. in 2017, I served as a policy advisor on disability healthcare policy at the Office of Minority Health. In 2022, two Fellowships, including to diversify the pipeline of diverse managers at CMS, have expanded my pathways and my thought leadership as a federal executive. To help ensure that the program values what leaders with disabilities bring to the table, I serve on the Board of the Presidential Management Alumni Association (PMAA).
In conclusion, it is an honor to serve the American people and the U.S. Constitution. While I am pleased to be a “success story,” our society must be intentional in recruiting other potential success stories with disabilities within public service.
Gary C. Norman, J.D. L.L.M.
Gary serves as a “PMF Ambassador.” He welcomes members of the public, especially those with disabilities considering the program, to contact him.