News & Commentary

11.23.10

Stephen Schoenbaum Joins the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation As Special Advisor to the President

Former Commonwealth Fund Executive Vice President Brings Over 40 Years of Expertise to Improving Health Professions Education

New York City — The Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, the only national foundation devoted solely to improving the education of health professionals, has named Stephen C. Schoenbaum, MD, MPH as Special Advisor to the President. A new position, Dr. Schoenbaum will work closely with President George E. Thibault, MD, to develop and manage the Foundation’s programmatic and grant making activities, and advance the Foundation’s mission to foster innovation in health professions education. Dr. Schoenbaum, who will step down in December as Executive Vice President for Programs at the Commonwealth Fund, will assume his new position in early 2011.

“To achieve a higher performing health system, we need a health care workforce that can provide better coordinated and more effective and efficient care,” says Schoenbaum. “I’m excited to have this opportunity to work with the Macy Foundation and its grantees to engage in innovating and improving the education of the next cohort of health care professionals in this country.”

Regarded as one of the nation’s thought leaders on health care quality improvement, Dr. Schoenbaum will bring a broad, seasoned perspective to the Foundation after spending more than 40 years in academic medicine, health care delivery, and philanthropy. For the past decade, Dr. Schoenbaum has been a principal officer at The Commonwealth Fund, a national foundation devoted to improving access to health care and health care quality. In his role as Executive Vice President for Programs, he oversaw a wide range of activities to improve health care quality. Schoenbaum was also Executive Director of the Fund’s Commission on a High Performance Health System, which is charged with recommending practical, evidence-informed strategies to improve health care access, quality and efficiency.

Before joining the Commonwealth Fund, Dr. Schoenbaum spent 18 years as a health care executive, helping to develop the Harvard Community Health Plan as a national model of care. During this time, he was also instrumental in developing the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS), a leading quality measurement tool. For 10 years prior, Dr. Schoenbaum was a faculty member at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital in Boston. He is currently a Lecturer in the Harvard Medical School’s Department of Population Medicine, which he helped found.

“Dr Schoenbaum’s experience in the foundation and academic worlds and his insights about the importance of the interface between healthcare reform and education reform will be of immeasurable value to us.” says Macy President George Thibault. “He will help me expand our reach and increase our impact,” he says.

Dr. Schoenbaum earned his bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and his medical and public health degrees from Harvard University. He received further clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases in the Harvard system.

Dr. Schoenbaum is also vice-chairman of the board of the Picker Institute; chair of the International Advisory Committee to the Joyce and Irving Goldman Medical School, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel; and an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.