Ron Sims

Deputy Secretary for Department of U.S. Housing & Urban Development

Ron Sims served as the Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2009 to 2011. As the second most senior official at HUD, Sims managed the day-to-day operations of an agency with 8,500 employees and an operating budget of nearly $40 billion.

Prior to his appointment at HUD, Sims served for 12 years as the elected Executive of Martin Luther King, Jr. County in Washington State, the 13th largest county in the nation with 1.8 million residents and 39 cities including the cities of Seattle, Bellevue and Redmond.

As County Executive, Sims was nationally recognized for his work on the integration of environmental, social equity and public health policies that produced groundbreaking work on climate change, health care reform, affordable housing, mass transit, environmental protection, land use, and equity and social justice.

Sims was named Leader of the Year by American City and County Magazine in July, 2008 and was recognized as one of Governing Magazine's Government Officials of the Year in 2007. He has been honored with national awards by the Sierra Club and the Environmental Protection Agency. He is the recipient of Group Health's Innovators in Health Award. Sims joined Senator Edward Kennedy and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as recipients of the 2008 Health Quality Award from the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

Sims was appointed in 2011 by Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire to serve on the Board of Regents of Washington State University. The board of regents is the university's governing body.

Sims was also appointed by Governor Gregoire to serve on the Puget Sound Leadership Council, a seven-member citizen group that governs the Puget Sound Partnership, a state agency coordinating with federal, state, local, tribal and private resources in restoring the ecological health of Washington state's largest estuary.

Sims rejoined the Board of Directors of the Puget Sound Health Alliance, a nonprofit organization he helped found where employers, physicians, hospitals, patients, health plan providers and others from throughout the five largest counties in Washington state come together to improve health care quality.

Born in Spokane, Washington in 1948, Sims is a graduate of Central Washington University.