Tamarah Duperval-Brownlee, MD, MPH, MBA, will serve in the newly created role of senior vice president and chief community impact officer (CCIO) for Ascension, effective March 4.
In this role, Dr. Duperval-Brownlee will provide direct oversight for the development and implementation of strategies and performance delivery to transform communities within Ascension markets, including health villages such as the one Ascension is creating in Washington, D.C., that socially integrate healthcare and non-healthcare partners to optimize the physical, mental, and financial health and well-being of a defined community.
Additional responsibilities include collaborating with partners to advance health equity thorough community health improvement and impacting the community-based social determinants of health to enable fulfillment of strategic goals through investment and program development.
Dr. Duperval-Brownlee’s role will be based in Washington, D.C., and she will provide immediate oversight of the ongoing transformation of the Providence Health System campus to better address unmet health and social needs of persons residing in the local communities, working closely with Patricia A. Maryland, Dr.PH, in her ongoing role as Providence board chair.
“As Ascension continues to lead the transformation of our ministries from their traditional hospital roots into the future of value-based delivery and socially integrated systems of care, I’m excited to have Dr. Duperval-Brownlee take on this work,” Dr. Maryland said. “Her leadership and operational expertise across our national health system, with an emphasis on delivery and integration of healthcare services focus on community health improvement and health equity, will allow us to work in partnership with individuals and communities to improve their health and well-being. I’m especially excited about collaborating with her on our important work in Washington, D.C., in my role as board chair of Providence.”
In addition to providing leadership for developing health villages across Ascension, Dr. Duperval-Brownlee will continue her work in advancing health equity and performance on the Ascension goal to eliminate preventable healthcare outcome disparities, as well as oversight for the Ascension Community Health Ministries. She will report to Karen Springer, executive vice president, Healthcare Operations, Ascension. Keith Vander Kolk, who has served as executive leader for the combined Ascension Baltimore/Washington Ministry Market, will continue to lead Saint Agnes Healthcare in Baltimore.
Dr. Duperval-Brownlee currently serves as Ascension vice president of Care Excellence. During her tenure, she has led several national quality improvement initiatives, the development of Ascension’s strategy to advance health equity and the performance on the Ascension goal to eliminate preventable healthcare outcome disparities. She also provides operational and clinical oversight of Ascension’s Community Health Ministries.
Her previous roles include president of medical affairs and CEO of clinical operations/chief medical officer at Lone Star Circle of Care and clinical assistant professor in family medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center.
Dr. Duperval-Brownlee received her Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering with a concentration in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University. She received her Master of Public Health from the Harvard University School of Public Health, specializing in healthcare policy and maternal child health and a Physician Executive Master of Business Administration, the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She received her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine.