Ann Barnes and Elena Marks
Episcopal Health Foundation
Dr. Ann Barnes has been named the next President and CEO of Episcopal Health Foundation (EHF), officially joining EHF on October 3, 2022 following the retirement of President and CEO Elena Marks. Currently, Barnes is the Chief Health Officer and Senior Vice President for Harris Health System in Houston.
Barnes joins EHF after almost 20 years of going beyond the doctor’s office to lead community clinic and safety-net health care systems in developing successful upstream innovations that address the social, economic, and environmental drivers of health for communities most in need.
At Harris Health, Barnes was responsible for developing the system’s health equity strategy. She also led the system’s efforts to improve population health, prevent disease, and address chronic conditions by integrating community resources that impact underlying, non-medical conditions like food security, safe places to exercise, poverty, and more.
Marks will retire after guiding the $1.3 billion start-up foundation from its creation in 2013 to a fully established philanthropic organization respected nationwide for its work not only to make health care more accessible for those most in need, but by investing in new and different solutions that address the underlying factors that lead to poor health.
View the full announcement here.
Contact: Brian Sasser at 832.807.2575 or bsasser@episcopalhealth.org.
Nancy Heaton
Foundation for Community Health
Nancy Heaton, the CEO of Foundation for Community Health, has been appointed to the newly established Governor’s Certificates of Need Task Force. The establishment of the taskforce was included in the 2022 Connecticut state budget and is directed to study and make recommendations to the Office of Health Strategy (OHS) with the goal of improving the state’s Certificate of Need (CON) process.
The CON program regulates certain health care providers, such as hospitals, requiring that they seek state approval prior to making major changes. These potential changes include mergers, significantly large capital investment in new equipment or facilities, changing access to services, or discontinuing a medical service.
Some of the questions this 16-member task force has been asked to investigate include:
- Analyzing services and facilities and their impact on equity and underserved populations
- Authorizing OHS to require investments to address community needs
- Guaranteeing local community representation on hospital boards
- Setting standards to measure quality indicators after consolidations
- Enacting higher penalties for noncompliance and increasing the staff needed for enforcement
The task force is to make recommendations on the initiatives by January 15, 2023.
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Contact: Gertrude O’Sullivan at 860.364.5157 at gertrude@fchealth.org.
Christina Mathews
Point32Health Foundation
Christina Mathews has joined the Point32Health Foundation team as Program Officer. She will work with Phillip González and Caitlin Sullivan on community investments made through the foundation’s grant programs.
Ms. Mathews is a public health advocate with expertise in policy, communications, and program management. She has experience with health promotion programs at the community, state, and international levels. Ms. Mathews has worked with the Rhode Island Department of Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Recently she served as Vice-Chair of the Needham Board of Health, an elected position; she also volunteers with several community organizations.
Contact: Alrie McNiff Daniels at 781.612.2080 or alrie.daniels@point32health.org.
Becky Payne, Laura Landy, and Alan Lieber
The Fannie E. Rippel Foundation
The Fannie E. Rippel Foundation (the “Foundation” or “Rippel”) has announced the appointment of Becky Payne as President and CEO, effective January 1, 2023. At that time, Alan Lieber will assume the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Health Care Strategist. Laura Landy, who has served as the Foundation’s President and CEO since 2006, will become President Emeritus and Senior Fellow and plans to retire at the end of 2023.
Prior to joining Rippel, where she currently serves as Executive Vice President, Ms. Payne spent 20 years in a variety of leadership roles at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she was recognized for leading multiple, large-scale initiatives. She has an impressive track record of designing innovative approaches to public health that maximize impact and community benefit, including the Communities Putting Prevention to Work and the Community Transformation Grant initiatives, establishing an office to forge partnerships with the business community, and spearheading over 35 agencies and hundreds of civil society partners to develop a vision and strategy for the equitable long-term recovery and resilience of social, behavioral, and community health emerging from the pandemic.
Mr. Lieber is a leader in health care system innovation, with a focus on improved outcomes for patients and communities. As President of Overlook Medical Center, he led the organization in becoming a top-rated regional medical center with improved clinical outcomes, strong connections to the communities it serves, and a demonstrated commitment to its workforce. Overlook has been recognized by Healthgrades as one of the top 50 hospitals in the nation for patient safety and clinical outcomes; among the Fortune 100 Best Places to Work for 14 consecutive years (as part of Atlantic Health System); and as one of the 25 most environmentally friendly hospitals in the nation by Project Greenhealth. Mr. Lieber currently serves as the Foundation’s Executive Vice President. In his new role, he will serve as the COO and lead the strategic direction and outreach for the Foundation’s work to transform health systems.
View the full announcement here.
Contact: Anat Gerstein at 646-321-4400 or anat@anatgerstein.com.
Dr. Ken Shatzkes
FORE
FORE promoted Ken Shatzkes, PhD to Program Director, effective July 2022. Since joining FORE as a Senior Program Officer in May 2019, Dr. Shatzkes has helped develop and shape its grantmaking programs to date, including four major program areas of Access to Treatment, Responding to COVID-19, Innovation, and Family-Based Prevention. As Program Director, he will continue to develop FORE’s grantmaking activities and programmatic strategies, as well as take on responsibilities related to our communications and dissemination activities.
Last year, Dr. Shatzkes completed the Council on Foundation’s Career Pathways leadership program, and he has been selected to be one of Grantmakers in Health’s Terrance Keenan Institute for Emerging Leaders in Health Philanthropy fellows this fall.
Dr. Shatzkes has over 15 years of experience performing biomedical research in academic, government, and nonprofit settings. In 2017, he served as the Science Policy Advisor in the Office of the New Jersey Governor, providing evidence-based recommendations on state opioid initiatives and supporting the governor’s work as chair of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis. Previously, he was a Rutgers-Eagleton Institute of Politics Fellow, placed in the Office of Intergovernmental and External Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he researched, tracked, and informed senior leadership of innovative state-led opioid-related initiatives. Prior to joining FORE, Dr. Shatzkes was an Associate Program Officer at the Helmsley Charitable Trust, a global health philanthropy focused on improving patients’ lives.
Contact: 646.880.3585
Carolyn Wang Kong
Blue Shield of California Foundation
Carolyn Wang Kong, Chief Program Director of the Blue Shield of California Foundation, is departing the Foundation at the end of September 2022 to become president of the Asian Pacific Fund. The Asian Pacific Fund is a San Francisco-based community foundation dedicated to improving the lives of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the Bay Area. The Fund mobilizes philanthropic giving from donors, supports organizations that serve the most vulnerable, and raises awareness about pressing community needs.
Ms. Wang Kong’s time at the Foundation has been marked by tremendous growth, development, and leadership. Since 2015, she has been instrumental in the Foundation’s work to support lasting and equitable solutions to make California the healthiest state and end domestic violence. Wang Kong first joined the Foundation as a program officer, then quickly advanced to senior program officer. She provided key input to the Foundation’s new strategic direction, under which she led the Collaborating for Healthy Communities initiative in 2018. In 2019, she was appointed Interim Chief Program Director and later assumed the permanent role. She successfully led the Foundation through significant leadership changes and oversaw more than $119 million in grants.
In addition, Ms. Wang Kong has led the Foundation’s work with power-building organizations, demonstrating her commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and her passion for serving marginalized communities. She co-founded the Be Well Funder Group, a national collaborative of funders supporting immigrant mental health and well-being.
Ms. Wang Kong is a Terrance Keenan Institute alumna and past winner of the Terrance Keenan Leadership Award.
View the full announcement here.
Contact: Rachael Kagan at (510) 227-7665 or rachael.kagan@blueshieldcafoundation.org.