Cathy Self
The Healing Trust (formerly the Baptist Healing Trust) announced that Cathy Self, Ph.D. President and CEO, will retire from the foundation after nine years of service. Dr. Self has been the President and CEO of The Trust since 2010 and has led The Trust through several accomplishments, including the creation of an Advocacy Grants Program, the creation of a Sabbatical Grant program for nonprofit CEOs, and the rebranding of the foundation. Kristen Keely-Dinger has previously served The Healing Trust as an intern, Program Officer, Vice President of Program and Grants, and as Executive Vice President. She will succeed Dr. Self, effective in December 2016.
Contact: Jennifer Oldham
Email: jennifer.oldham@healingtrust.org
S. Karthick Ramakrishnan
The California Endowment appointed S. Karthick Ramakrishnan, Ph.D., professor and associate dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of California, Riverside, to the Board. Mr. Ramakrishnan, who has been at UC Riverside since 2005, previously served as a Research Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco from 2002-2005. In addition, he is also an organizer for the Politics of Race, Immigration, and Ethnicity Colloquium (PRIEC), a national conference series for scholars working on issues of race, immigration, and ethnicity.
Mr. Ramakrishnan is the founding editor (July 2014-present) of the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, an official section journal of the American Political Science Association. He is a member of the Western Political Science Association’s Committee on the Status of Asian Pacific Americans in the Profession. He is also a member of National Park Service’s Asian American/Pacific Islander Theme Study Advisory Board. He is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards including Global Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center.
Contact: Jeff Okey
Phone: 213.928.8622
Email: jokey@calendow.org
O’dell Owens
Dr. O’dell Moreno Owens has been named Interact for Health‘s next president and CEO. He will succeed James Schwab, who will retire in October.
Dr. Owens is well known in the Greater Cincinnati community, with deep experience in healthcare, public health, and the nonprofit community. Dr. Owens holds both an MD in obstetrics and gynecology and a master’s of public health from Yale University Medical School. He served at Harvard Medical School as a clinical instructor and completed a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology. After returning to his native Cincinnati in 1982, Owens established an in-vitro fertilization program. He achieved Cincinnati’s first successful conception and delivery as well as the first pregnancy from a frozen embryo. In recent years, Dr. Owens has served as the Hamilton County Coroner, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College President, and Interim Health Commissioner of the Cincinnati Health Department.
Contact: Allison Ryan
Phone: 513.312.0185
Email: allison@rickmillercommunications.com
Barbara A. Leonard
Following a nationwide search, the Maine Health Access Foundation (MeHAF) Board of Trustees announced its unanimous selection of Barbara A. Leonard, MPH of Winslow, Maine, as the foundation’s new President and CEO.
Ms. Leonard’s expertise ranges from program development and evaluation to health policy, health systems, rural and women’s health, and access for underserved populations. As a health policy consultant, she advised national and Maine-based organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors. At the Maine Bureau of Health (now Maine Center for Disease Control), she established the Maine Breast and Cervical Health Program and served as the State’s Chronic Disease Director. Her work at the Maine Ambulatory Care Coalition (now Maine Primary Care Association) supported development of Maine’s first Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Coalition.
Ms. Leonard has served as the foundation’s Vice President for Programs since 2008. At MeHAF, she took a lead role in initiating a decade-long effort to integrate primary care and mental health, oversaw a multiyear effort to ensure that the needs of underserved and uninsured individuals were included in health care payment reform efforts, and ensured that MeHAF advanced and strengthened access to oral health services in Maine.
Ms. Leonard also brings extensive experience serving on state and national advisory committees and boards. She served on the national Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Kids Healthy Communities Evaluation Advisory Group and the DentaQuest Foundation’s Oral Health 2014 National Advisory Committee.
Contact: Dani Kalian
Phone: 207.620.8266
Email: dkalian@mehaf.org
Risa Lavizzo-Mourey
After nearly 14 years as President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), Risa Lavizzo-Mourey announced her intention to step down. She committed 10 to 15 years of service to the Board of Trustees and has pledged to remain until a successor is in place. The Board has already started its search process. Both the Board and the RWJF staff remain deeply committed to advancing the movement toward a Culture of Health.
During her time at RWJF, one of its biggest efforts-and biggest successes-has been to reverse the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic. In 2007, it committed $500 million to the effort, launching a national movement to raise awareness of the issue and to find solutions. In 2015, it committed another $500 million to sustain the movement for another decade. It works alongside different sectors to ensure all children have access to healthy food and opportunities to be active. In the nine years since it launched the obesity initiative, positive strides have been made:
- The obesity rate among all children ages 2 to 19 has stopped rising and has held steady at 17 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Among the nation’s youngest children, ages 2 to 5, the obesity rate has decreased from 13.9 percent in 2003-2004 to 8.9 percent in 2011-2014.
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture has updated requirements for local school wellness policies to ensure food or beverage in schools meets the Smart Snacks nutrition standards.
- Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, physical education will be included among subjects eligible for federal funding for schools with a high percentage of students from lower-income families.
- This year adult obesity rates decreased in four states-Minnesota, Montana, New York, and Ohio-the first time in a decade that any states have seen a decrease in adult obesity.
It also built upon RWJF’s support for programs aimed at helping individuals obtain health care coverage, providing relevant research, consumer outreach, and technical assistance to states implementing the Affordable Care Act. It helped develop strategies to simplify enrollment in the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Ms. Mourey is not leaving RWJF because she accepted another position and has not made commitments.
Phone: 877.843.7953
Keith Kehoe and Lebron McPhail
The Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) recently welcomed Keith Kehoe and Lebron McPhailto its Board of Directors.
Keith Kehoe has been a physician assistant in the Upper Mat-Su for almost 20 years. He began working at Sunshine Community Health Center in 1997, providing acute, chronic, and preventative medical care. Prior to Sunshine, Mr. Kehoe worked as a physician assistant in several other Alaska communities, as well as overseas. His previous board experience includes eight years with the Alaska Primary Care Association, the Jessica Stevens Foundation since its inception in 2007, and with Talkeetna’s local community radio station, KTNA. Mr. Kehoe is a veteran of the U.S. Army.
Lebron McPhail worked for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD) from 1984 to 2013. During his 29-year career, he served as a teacher, coach, assistant principal, principal, and executive director of instruction with an enrollment approaching 18,000 students. Since his retirement, Mr. McPhail has worked for the MSBSD part-time overseeing students who are on long term suspensions to help them recover credits that would have otherwise been lost, and provide leadership and structure for them to be successful in life and within their respective communities. He also serves as a commissioner for Serve Alaska which engages Alaskans of all ages and background in community based service and volunteerism through the AmeriCorps Program. Mr. McPhail has also volunteered his time within the community serving on a number of nonprofit organizations, like the Alaska Family Services Board.
In addition to selecting Mr. Kehoe and Mr. McPhail as new board members, the MSHF Board of Directors chose officers for 2016/17. Scott Johannes was elected as the board’s Chair, Mary Olson as Vice Chair, and Ken Kincaid was reelected as Secretary/Treasurer.
Contact: Robin Minard
Phone: 907.352.2892
Email: rminard@healthymatsu.org
Elizabeth Honold
Saint Luke’s Foundation of Cleveland appointed Elizabeth Honold as Finance Director. Ms. Honold comes to the foundation from the Cleveland Foundation, where she served as the Manager of Investments and Finance since 2011. There, she was responsible for the day-to-day oversight and administration of the foundation’s $2 billion investment portfolio. She also oversaw cash management, finance/treasury analysis, various special projects, and served as the finance department’s liaison with the Cleveland Foundation’s advancement team.
In her new role, Ms. Honold is responsible for developing and implementing financial accounting and investment procedures to achieve the mission and vision established by the foundation’s board. Additionally, she is responsible for overseeing spending and ensuring good stewardship of the foundation’s investments.
Contact: David Wasserstrom
Phone: 216.403.7272
Email: david@rouxcreative.com