Ascension, a nonprofit Catholic health system headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, has appointed Tamarah Duperval-Brownlee to the newly created role of senior vice president and chief community impact officer.
She started the position on March 4.
Duperval-Brownlee holds a master of public health degree from the Harvard University School of Public Health, a physician executive MBA degree from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She also received her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine.
Most recently, she was Ascension’s vice president of care excellence. Duperval-Brownlee’s previous roles include president of medical affairs and CEO of clinical operations/CMO at Lone Star Circle of Care and clinical assistant professor in family medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center.
In her new position as chief community impact officer, Duperval-Brownlee will oversee strategies to transform communities within Ascension markets. This includes the health village Ascension is developing in Washington D.C., which integrates healthcare and non-healthcare partners to improve the physical, mental and financial health of the population. She will also collaborate with partners to advance health equity and work to impact the community-based social determinants of health.
Duperval-Brownlee will be based in Washington, D.C. and will head up the transformation of the Providence Health System campus to address the health and social needs of the community. Providence is part of Ascension, which has 2,600 sites of care across the nation.
Ascension joins a growing number of health systems adding new positions to the C-suite.
Some organizations like UC San Diego Health and Cedars-Sinai Health System have added the chief experience officer or chief patient experience officer role.
And last year, Jefferson Health in Philadelphia appointed Austin Chiang as its first chief medical social media officer. In his role, Chiang, who holds a medical degree and a master of public health degree, amplifies the organization’s messages and serves as a liaison between clinicians, medical students and residents to educate them on the effective use of social media.
Photo: sorbetto, Getty Images
