New York, NY, July 16, 2019 — Liz Fowler, a leading health policy expert in both the public and private sectors, will join the Commonwealth Fund as Executive Vice President for Programs on July 23. She will be based at the foundation’s New York City headquarters. At the same time, Melinda Abrams, Vice President for Delivery System Reform, has been promoted to Senior Vice President overseeing the Delivery System Reform and International Health Policy programs.
Fowler most recently served as Vice President for Global Health Policy at Johnson & Johnson. In that role, she focused on health care delivery system and payment reform in the U.S. and health care systems and reform in emerging markets. Prior to that position, she was a special assistant to President Barack Obama on health care and economic policy at the National Economic Council, and occupied key positions at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she assisted with implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
Prior to her work in the administration, Fowler was Chief Health Counsel to former Senate Finance Committee Chair, Senator Max Baucus, served as Vice President of Public Policy and External Affairs for WellPoint, Inc. (now Anthem), and as an attorney with the Washington law firm Hogan & Hartson. She also spent nearly five years as a health services researcher with Park Nicollet Foundation in Minnesota.
Fowler earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a law degree from the University of Minnesota. She is admitted to the bar in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We are fortunate to be joined by someone as broadly admired and richly experienced as Liz Fowler,” said Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, M.D. “Her deep understanding of the full range of health care issues confronting our country at this time will surely help advance the Commonwealth Fund’s primary goal of affordable, high quality health care for everyone.”
Abrams has been with the Fund since 1997 and has contributed to key initiatives including the Task Force on Academic Health Centers and the Child Development and Preventive Care Program. She led the Patient- Centered Coordinated Care program before stepping into her current role. In her new position, she will continue to oversee the Fund’s delivery system work and also take on oversight of the Fund’s International Health Policy Program, and she will sit on the Fund’s Executive Management Team.
“The Fund has had the privilege of benefitting from Melinda’s strategic and thoughtful approach to health system reform for nearly two decades,” Blumenthal noted. “We are thrilled to have her in this expanded role, where her immense contributions to the Fund will continue to grow and bear fruit.”
Fowler will succeed Donald Moulds who has served as Executive Vice President since January of 2014. Moulds had announced earlier his intention to return to his home state of California once a successor was identified.
“Don’s leadership has played a critical role in the Fund’s work over the past five years,” said Blumenthal. “His guidance, ability to bring innovative policy ideas to fruition, and his good nature will be sorely missed. We wish him the best — California is lucky to have him back.”
