Health policy and geriatric medicine expert Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD said she will join the University of Pennsylvania as a professor. In a way, it’s a homecoming: Prior to joining the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Lavizzo-Mourey had served for 15 years as a distinguished professor and administrator at Penn.

Lavizzo-Mourey previously revealed plans to leave the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation this April after leading the organization for nearly 14 years as president and CEO. RWJF has announced Richard Besser, MD, former acting director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and ABC News’ chief health and medical editor, will succeed Lavizzo-Mourey at the foundation.

When Lavizzo-Mourey joins Penn, she will take the role of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Population Health and Health Equity Professor with joint faculty appointments in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy in the Perelman School of Medicine, the Department of Health Care Management in the Wharton School, and the Department of Family and Community Health in the School of Nursing.

“This professorship will ensure that critical issues surrounding population health and health equity remain the focus of intensive examination, productive collaboration, and far-reaching problem-solving,” Lavizzo-Mourey said in a statement.

Penn cited Lavizzo-Mourey and the foundation for its devotion to health including the billion-dollar initiative to reverse the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic, the support of programs to help people obtain better healthcare, the Foundation’s Commission to Build a Healthier America and its landmark 2009 report “Beyond Health Care,” focused on recommendations to improve health at the local, state, and federal levels.

“Whether leading one of the nation’s largest healthcare philanthropies, advising the White House on health policy, or publishing prolifically in some of the world’s most influential medical journals, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey is an eminent interdisciplinary changemaker,” Penn President Amy Gutmann said in a statement.

In her previous tenure at Penn, Lavizzo-Mourey was Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine and director of the Institute on Aging. She began her career at Penn in 1986, after earning an MBA at Wharton in Health Care Administration while completing Penn’s Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars program. During her tenure she served as associate executive vice president for health policy, associate dean for Health Services Research, and chief of the Division of Geriatric Medicine.

Lavizzo-Mourey earned her MD from Harvard Medical School. In recognition of her “far-ranging and path-breaking accomplishments,” Penn awarded her an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 2010.

She will rejoin Penn on January 1, 2018.

Twitter: @Bernie_HITN
Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com

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