Amy Berman, Senior Program Officer at The John A. Hartford Foundation, will receive Grantmakers In Health’s (GIH) 2016 Terrance Keenan Leadership Award in Health Philanthropy. The award pays tribute to health grantmakers whose work is distinguished by leadership, innovation, and outstanding achievement.
A passionate visionary, advocate, and intellectual, Ms. Berman directs the foundation’s Integrating and Improving Services program, which focuses on developing innovative, cost-effective models of care for older adults. While at the foundation, she has nurtured a portfolio of nationally influential programs including Carealign, Guided Care, Care Transitions Intervention, Project BOOST, Care Management Plus, and the IMPACT Model for Depression Care. The evidence base created by these programs has had a profound influence and Ms. Berman has worked tirelessly to ensure this knowledge benefits as many patients as possible.
Ms. Berman’s influence is particularly evident in the palliative care field. Her dedication, guidance, and willingness to take risks has greatly contributed to the availability of palliative care services throughout the county. Working with the Center to Advance Palliative Care, she has helped ensure such services are available in more than 90 percent of large hospitals. “I cannot think of an individual who brings more intellectual rigor and creativity to the task and who combines her professional discipline, work ethic, and skill with her commitment to the vision of high quality care for all who suffer and all who are facing serious illness,” said Diane Meier, M.D., Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care.
Ms. Berman’s drive to improve quality of care is also deeply personal. In 2010, she was diagnosed with Stage IV inflammatory breast cancer. Since then, she has openly shared her personal experience with advanced illness. With the goal of improving the health care system by informing providers, patients, policymakers, and other funders, Ms. Berman has regularly blogged on The John A. Hartford Foundation website and has been featured in national stories about serious illness and patient engagement in decisionmaking, including articles published in Health Affairs and the Washington Post.
Before joining the foundation, Ms. Berman served as the Nursing Education Initiatives Director at the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University’s College of Nursing. Prior to that, she worked in home health care administration. She has served on the New York State Department of Health’s Emergency Preparedness Task Force and is a member of the Aging Task Force for Healthy People 2020, the Gerontological Society of America, and the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau. Ms. Berman earned a B.S. in nursing from New York University, a B.S. in health care administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Geriatric Scholar Certificate from the Consortium of New York Geriatric Education Centers.
GIH established the Terrance Keenan Leadership Award in 1993 in honor of Terrance Keenan and his more than 40 years of services and contributions to health philanthropy. GIH will present the award to Ms. Berman at its annual conference, March 9-11, 2016 in San Diego, California.