What’s the news: A leading health care trade publication has named AMA Senior Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH, to its list of top diversity leaders in health care.
Those named “represent a cross section of the industry and have demonstrated a commitment to expanding and improving access to care, regardless of a patient’s race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. They’ve also served as mentors to advance diversity within the industry’s leadership ranks,” says the introduction to the list compiled by a panel of judges and top editors at Modern Healthcare, which is ranked No. 1 in readership among health care executives.
Why it’s important: Modern Healthcare noted that during Dr. Maybank’s “short time at the AMA, she developed and launched its first equity strategy, including a multiyear road map” to address racial injustice.
Dr. Maybank “also ensured that the association reached out to and listened to external stakeholders” and “also helped forge a health advocacy fellowship in cooperation with the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine.”
Read more from AMA President Gerald E. Harmon, MD on what we need to advance equity—reflection, partnership, accountability.
Learn more: Dr. Maybank joined the AMA in 2019 to launch the Association’s Center for Health Equity, which among other things is curating a groundbreaking CME series that details health inequities’ root causes.
She also frequently moderates expert panel discussions as part of the AMA “Prioritizing Equity” video series, which illuminates how COVID-19 and other determinants of health uniquely impact marginalized communities, public health and health equity, with an eye on both short-term and long-term implications.
Dr. Maybank is joined on the Modern Healthcare list of top diversity leaders by these eight AMA members:
- Georges Benjamin, MD, executive director, American Public Health Association; selected as a “luminary” on the list.
- Bechara Choucair, MD, MS, White House vaccinations coordinator.
- Ronald Copeland, MD, senior vice president of national diversity and inclusion strategy; policy and chief equity, inclusion and diversity officer, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals.
- Olaoluwa Fayanju, MD, MSc, regional medical director, Oak Street Health.
- Tejal Gandhi, MD, chief safety and transformation officer, Press Ganey Associates.
- Margaret Larkins-Pettigrew, MD, senior vice president and chief clinical diversity, equity and inclusion officer, Allegheny Health Network.
- Rhonda Medows, MD, president of population health management, Providence; CEO, Ayin Health Solutions.
- Pam Oliver, MD, executive vice president, Novant Health; president, Novant Health Physician Network.
Check out the full list of top 25 diversity leaders in health care.
