Leah Binder Named CEO of the Leapfrog Group
Hospital Executive to Lead Efforts for Further Health System Change
January 22, 2008
WASHINGTON, DC - The Leapfrog Group’s board of directors today announced the appointment of Leah Binder, MA, MGA, as CEO, effective March 10.
Ms. Binder is currently Vice President of Franklin Community Health Network (FCHN) based in Farmington, Maine. She oversees operations for the system involving marketing, planning and public health outreach, and also serves as Executive Director of the Healthy Community Coalition (HCC) and Franklin Health Access. FCHN’s primary institution, Franklin Memorial Hospital (FMH), participates in the Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey and as a result has made a number of patient safety improvements. Before arriving in Farmington, Leah served as senior policy advisor to New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani where she developed programs to improve care of the uninsured, among others. She began her career in health policy with the National League for Nursing where she served as public policy director.
In addition to an extensive background in health policy and administration, Ms. Binder has raised and managed over eight million dollars in new grant funding - more than double the amount in any eight-year period since FMH’s founding in 1928. She also has served on many local and state boards, civic and professional boards, including campaign co-chair for the United Way of Tri-Valley, president of the Maine Public Health Association and chair of Maine’s public health institute, the Maine Center for Public Health.
As the next CEO, Ms. Binder will make full use of her experience in catalyzing change to help Leapfrog continue stimulating large-scale improvement in health care. As an administrator of a small community hospital network, she will bring more focus to rural hospital issues in activities including the Leapfrog Survey. She also plans to interest more funders and philanthropists in furthering Leapfrog’s mission and goals, and employ her team building skills by strengthening the working relationships between the organization, its members and its stakeholders.
“Doing business the Leapfrog way is not about thinking like an insider - Leapfrog affects breakthrough improvement in health care by stimulating it via accountability, incentives and other bold experiments in payment reform. Leah Binder has the balance between passion and know-how that is vital to maintaining Leapfrog’s relevance to buyers of health care,” stated Jill Berger, Chair of The Leapfrog Group and Vice President, Health & Welfare for Marriott International, Inc.
Theresa Helle, Leapfrog Regional Roll-Out Leader for Seattle and Manager of Boeing’s Health Care Quality and Efficiency Initiatives, said, “With her strong combination of on-the-ground quality expertise coupled with development and coalition building skills, Ms. Binder can bring Leapfrog closer to achieving its mission to trigger giant leaps forward in the safety, quality and affordability of health care.”
“Leveraging the purchasing power of large buyers of health care to advance transparency and accountability is a solution that is powerful and long overdue. The Leapfrog Group’s time has come and I intend to grow this organization and continue to position it as a leading part of the solution to major challenges in health care,” stated Ms. Binder.
Married with two children, Ms. Binder received her undergraduate degree from Brandeis University (Waltham MA), a master’s degree from the Annenberg School for Communications, and a Master of Government Administration degree from the Fels Institute of Government, both at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia).
The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org). On behalf of the millions of Americans for whom many of the nation’s largest corporations and public agencies buy health benefits, The Leapfrog Group aims to use its members’ collective leverage to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality, and affordability of health care for Americans. The Leapfrog Group was founded in November 2000 by the Business Roundtable and is supported by its members, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and other sources.
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