Binta Beard

Binta Beard is Managing Partner at Equinox Strategies, where she provides strategic consulting to clients on a range of health and public policy issues. As a veteran staffer of both the House and Senate, she understands the dynamics of the administration and Congress. With this experience and her background in public health, she possesses the knowledge needed to navigate today’s complicated public policy issues.

As a Principal at the Podesta Group, Binta was client manager for multi-national companies, one of the country's largest foundations committed to the well-being of children, and a non-partisan children's health advocacy group. On Capitol Hill, she served as Senior Policy Advisor to Majority Whip Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), where she led the senator’s health portfolio. In this position, she drafted legislation and amendments enacted into law, worked with committees, and partnered with public and private stakeholders. Prior to Sen. Durbin, she served in the House of Representatives as Legislative Assistant to then-Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Binta managed health legislative priorities, including passage of health care reform. 

Before arriving to Capitol Hill, Binta worked in the public health sphere in many capacities. She conducted obesity and cancer prevention research at Dana-FarberCancer Institute, examined barriers to and the indirect costs of health care at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and investigated disparities in children’s exposure to toxins at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in Atlanta. She received a doctorate in health and social policy and a master’s in health and social behavior from the Harvard School of Public Health. She received her bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College.