With excitement for the future and a grateful heart, I’m announcing today that I have decided to leave my position as President and CEO in February 2024 after 13 rewarding years leading AcademyHealth.
I love leading an organization whose members are passionate about producing and using evidence, improving health care, and advancing equity. With the support of the membership and the board, AcademyHealth is making significant progress in each of these areas. The AcademyHealth team is exceptional: smart, nimble, and passionate about the mission. Operationally and culturally, we are driving toward health care innovation, equity, and improvement across all our programs and services.
Together, we have accelerated and amplified our efforts to ensure health services research makes an impact, driving the use of high-quality data and evidence to inform policy and practice. We’ve also taken steps to assess the size, capacity, diversity, and needs of the health services research workforce, and worked to sustain and support those needs with new methods and data, increased advocacy for funding and other resources, and significant investment of our reserves in support of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. We’ve been intentional in our engagement of individuals and organizations who use evidence to drive health improvement and health equity, deeper connections with health systems and state policymakers, the centering of patients, and the development of new partners and collaborators. We have embraced innovation and technology and pivoted toward new ways of working and learning.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, membership is once again growing, AcademyHealth’s extramural programs are strong, and its advocacy efforts are creating important new opportunities to share the evidence of the field and deepen commitment to increased funding for health services research.
As for me, I am not retiring! With confidence in AcademyHealth’s foundation for the future, I feel called to recenter and consider new ways to continue my life’s work to make health care better and improve equity and outcomes for all.
In accordance with our existing succession plan, the Board is launching a national search for the next President and CEO. I look forward to a smooth transition, assisting where appropriate, and celebrating as they take AcademyHealth forward to new areas of investment and even greater success. The field of health services research and health policy is poised for tremendous, positive change in the next decade. I’m confident the Board will recruit a dynamic leader to harness the energy of the staff and the members of AcademyHealth and all the opportunities that await.
I am grateful to so many for their steadfast support since I took on this role. AcademyHealth is truly a very special place. It is staffed by talented professionals committed to our mission who have become my extended family. We are guided by a diverse Board of Directors who care deeply about our success and impact. Our community of brilliant members and partners give their time and expertise and push us to always reach for excellence in all that we do.
Being at AcademyHealth is a privilege and a joy. I look forward to continuing our work together through the transition year and staying in touch in the future.