Linda Cummings is a partner in the Health Network Research Group, which provides customized research and implementation strategies for the safety net. The Health Network Research Group offers timely access to best practices, innovations, and analysis in caring for vulnerable populations. For over a decade, Dr. Cummings was vice president for research at America’s Essential Hospitals (AEH) where she directed the Essential Hospitals Institute, AEH’s research affiliate. She developed and implemented a research agenda focused on system redesign, high performing health care organizations, quality and performance improvement, the financial and operational characteristics of safety net hospitals, health disparities and health reform implementation. Dr. Cummings was AcademyHealth’s second Innovator-in-Residence where she profiled the use of research in designing patient care improvements at three major safety net hospital systems.
Dr. Cummings is on the advisory committee for AcademyHealth’s Translation and Dissemination Institute. She served on the advisory committees of the Kaiser Permanente Burch Minority Leadership Development program, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Scientific Symposium, Forum 2014, and on Mathematica's stakeholder panel for the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Dissemination & Implementation Action Plan. Her Ph.D. is from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in political science with a concentration in American politics and public policy.