Health Affairs

From Health Affairs

Profiles Of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Young Leader Awardees

Bethesda, MD -- Today Health Affairs releases, as Web First articles, profiles of ten outstanding young leaders, all winners of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Young Leaders Award, announced on the occasion of the Foundation's fortieth anniversary. The RWJF Young Leader Awards highlight the important contributions that people can make early in their career to improving health and health care for all Americans.

The ten awardees, all age forty or younger, have made exceptional contributions in a broad spectrum of activities that display their individual commitment to their communities and to the provision and delivery of health care. Each awardee's accomplishments demonstrate his or her unique skills and potential, ranging from building a network of urban community gardens and using community organizing tools to addressing public transportation issues to developing smartphone-based training modules for community health workers and addressing disparities in treatment of chronic kidney diseases.

Other areas in which the awardees are bringing about change include: patient-centered medical homes; data analytics and information exchange to improve care; basic social needs of less-fortunate patients, such as food and heat; and digital communications and social media to improve public cardiac care.

At the October announcement of the awardees, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, RWJF President and CEO, said that "during the relatively short period that our foundation has been operational, these impressive men and women were born and raised and started doing amazing things that can potentially improve the health of all Americans. We're proud to acknowledge their early success, and inspired by the potential they have to improve US health and health care."

Health Affairs is the leading journal at the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published by Project HOPE, the peer-reviewed journal appears each month in print, with additional Web First papers published periodically and health policy briefs published twice monthly at www.healthaffairs.org. You can also find the journal on Facebook and Twitter. Read daily perspectives on Health Affairs Blog. Download weekly Narrative Matters podcasts on iTunes.

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