Mark Benton

Mark Benton is the Chief Deputy Secretary for Health at DHHS. He was previously the Assistant Secretary for Public Health.

Prior to accepting his appointment as Deputy Secretary in 2017, Benton was the co-owner and founding partner of The Paratum Group, LLC, a Raleigh-based healthcare consulting firm. He was also the former chief operating officer and acting president for N.C. Community Care Networks, a non-profit organization that provides care coordination and population health management to the state's Medicaid recipients and other insured and uninsured residents. He has also served as the senior program officer with the Milbank Memorial Fund, working with a bipartisan group of senior health policymakers across the U.S. and abroad.

Benton previously worked for 18 years at DHHS. Key leadership positions included: deputy director and director of the state’s Medicaid and SCHIP programs; assistant director and chief of planning for the state’s health care licensure/regulatory agency; and senior health care policy analyst to the secretary.

Benton received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Mount Olive.