Access to the best healthcare is what our mission statement promises: “To improve the health and healing of the people and communities we serve.”
That means all people. All our communities.
Yet we know from a recent report that residents of Northeast Hartford can expect to die 15 years earlier than those who live less than four miles away in West Hartford Center. That is a startling example of health disparities within the communities we serve — and it is just one of many.
Hartford HealthCare is making a commitment to focus critical attention on this important issue. Sarah S. Lewis will join Hartford HealthCare as Vice President of Health Equity. Sarah will begin May 31.
In this new system-level role, Sarah will complement the community health improvement efforts underway across our system of care. Those critical initiatives will continue as Sarah focuses on leading the review, development and implementation of system-wide health improvement practices and policies — heading up efforts across our system of care to advance health equity and address health disparities for the people we are privileged to serve. This will include developing implicit bias reduction training and tracking programs, with the coordination of clinical and front-line colleagues.
Sarah comes to Hartford HealthCare from the Greater New York Hospital Association, an organization with which HHC has a strategic partnership. There, in addition to her role as Vice President for Health System Services, Sarah took on additional responsibilities, working directly with CEO Elliot Joseph on efforts to demonstrate the crucial economic impact health systems have on the state and its communities. Sarah’s work at GNYHA also included a suite of projects and programs related to maternal and child health, including perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and maternal mortality.
Sarah’s professional background includes service in both the legislative and executive branches of New York State government, health advocacy, corporate social responsibility, public sector leadership diversity and inclusion, and local and national campaigns. While working in state government, Sarah served as deputy chief of staff to the lieutenant governor of New York and subsequently as assistant secretary for policy to the governor of New York.
Sarah earned her Master’s in Public Health from Columbia University, and her bachelor’s degree in Human Biology, with a concentration in Health Care Policy for Underserved Communities, from Stanford University. She is a graduate of the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs.
Sarah’s education, passion for her work, deep advocacy experience and knowledge of our system will be amazing assets for Hartford HealthCare — and for the communities we serve.
Yes, all our communities.