Women in Healthcare Spotlight On: Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey
Healthcare Now Radio is proud to celebrate the top female professionals in healthcare for the month of March in honor of Women’s History Month. Follow and join the conversation with #WomeninHealthcare and #WomensHistoryMonth.
Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey is the CEO and President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this country’s largest philanthropic organization dedicated only to health. Since 2003, Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey has used her unique experiences of medical doctor, policy maker, and nonprofit executive to lead the foundation in the efforts to combat the most urgent health issues and to create a Culture of Health. Prior to her work at RWJF, she was the Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine and Health Care Systems at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, she was chief of geriatric medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine and the director of Penn’s Institute on Aging. She served at the federal level as deputy administrator of the now Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. Lavizzo-Mourey co-chaired both the working group on quality care for the White House Health Care Reform Task Force and a congressionally requested Institute of Medicine study on racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Federal Advisory Committees she has served on include the Task Force on Aging Research, the National Committee for Vital and Health Statistics, and the President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry.
Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey is originally from Seattle, WA and completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Washington and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. As a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, she trained in geriatrics, and then went on to receive an MBA from the Wharton School.
To learn more about Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey’s work at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, read In It Together – Building a Culture of Health, her president’s message in the RWJF’s Annual Letter and watch her speak at a University of Pennsylvania presentation about New RWJF Vision: Building a Culture of Health.
“Imagine living in a community making sure the health of all of our children is a matter of fact and not a matter of chance. Imagine knowing that all of our employers, our mayors, our educators and our faith leaders were working together to give everyone the tools and the opportunities they need to make responsible choices. A Culture of Health means living in a society that not only believes but also insists that every person has the chance to be as healthy as they can be. The thing is, if we are going to get there, we have to get there together. We have to recognize that health includes creating safe places for kids to play. It includes improving access to high-quality health care. It reaches into our workplaces, our schools and every one of our neighborhoods. Every community is going to build the Culture of Health that serves it best, and that’s the way it should be. The change has to come from the ground up. It has to be driven by ordinary citizens with the help of business, community organizations and government. We all have to forge partnerships in our communities, and then we have to make the commitment to stick to our goals for health until we see success.” – Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey
Healthcare Now Radio salutes Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey for her tireless efforts to make good health a fundamental expectation for all Americans and not a privilege due to geography or socioeconomic status. #CultureofHealth
