Brutrinia Cain, J.D., B.S.N., R.N.
Fellowship Year(s): 2018-2019
Profession: Lawyer
Specialty: Law, Nursing
Fellowship Details:
Senior Legislative Analyst
Health Resources and Services Administration US Department of Health and Human Services
House Committee on Education and Labor (Majority)
Maryland
At time of Fellowship
Brutrinia Cain is a senior legislative analyst at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). She is responsible for overseeing, managing, and coordinating congressional inquiries, requests for briefings, meetings and technical assistance on draft legislation for HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the Office of Women’s Health. Before she assumed this role, she was a senior policy advisor at the Division of Commissioned Corps Personnel and Readiness in the Office of the Surgeon General, where she advised senior leadership on policy matters related to Commissioned Corps force management. She has also served as regulatory counsel at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where her portfolio of projects included expedited drug approval programs for patients with serious conditions, interchangeable and biosimilar biological products, and abuse-deterrent formulations for opioid medications.
Cain began her career as a critical care nurse and officer in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. During law school, Cain developed an interest in health inequities and how the law can mitigate social determinants that negatively affect the health of vulnerable populations. As a University of Kansas School of Law medical-legal postgraduate fellow, she educated law and medical students, faculty, and public health stakeholders on the intersections of law and public health, and on the medical-legal partnership model. As a member of the transitional board at the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, Cain helped change the regulations that govern Federally Qualified Health Centers, which allowed them to offer legal services to the patients they serve.
Cain earned her bachelor of science in nursing from Texas Christian University and her JD from the University of Kansas School of Law.
Current Info:
Compliance Officer
Health Resources and Services Administration
Health Disparities;Social Determinants of Health
Since Fellowship:
Brutrinia (Trinia) Cain has over 20 years of experience in the federal government as a nurse, attorney, and health policy professional. She is a proud veteran of the Army Nurse Corps and is currently a Commander in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Throughout her tenure as a federal employee, she has held positions at the Health Resources and Services Administration, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General. One of the many highlights of her career includes being selected as a 2018-2019 Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow where she worked with the health and labor policy teams on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor (majority staff).
Currently, Trinia is a compliance officer within the Division of Practitioner Data Bank, at the Health Resources and Services Administration. Her passion for professional development inspired her to earn personal, professional, and executive coaching certificates from the Coaching and Positive Psychology Institute in 2020. In 2021, she became an internal coach with the Federal Coach Network, and she is faculty for the Department of Health and Human Services Federal Internal
Coach Program. She also runs a private professional coaching practice.
Trinia currently lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Her research interests include exploring how the law can be used to mitigate social determinants of health and promote health equity, and the role professional coaching can play in combatting health care professional burnout and promoting career development. She is a Pilates enthusiast, and enjoys reading, writing, travelling, and really good coffee. Of all the titles she’s held over the course of her career, she’s most proud of being “mom” to her 19-year-old daughter, who is currently attending Texas Christian University.
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