Speaker
Ruth Williams-Brinkley, FACHE
Ruth E. Williams-Brinkley is regional president of Kaiser Permanente Health Plan for the Mid-Atlantic States. In this role, she directs Kaiser Permanente’s markets in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, providing fully integrated care and coverage for the region’s almost 800,000 members. The Mid-Atlantic region includes the health plan, a large network of geographically dispersed medical offices, clinics, ambulatory surgery centers, care-at-home skilled nursing, diagnostic, virtual and other care continuum services, and partnership with the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group. Prior to joining the Mid-Atlantic, she led Kaiser Permanente Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals of the Northwest, where she oversaw the health plan and hospitals in Oregon and southwest Washington. Ms. Williams-Brinkley has more than 40 years of executive experience in healthcare. Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, she served as senior vice president of operations for CommonSpirit Health (formerly CHI) and president/CEO of KentuckyOne Health, which at that time was Kentucky’s largest integrated health delivery system. She served as the system’s first president/CEO and designed, implemented and integrated all aspects of the system’s governance, strategy, operations, physician services and ACO. She held previous executive leadership roles at Ascension Health and APM management consultants. Ms. Williams-Brinkley serves on the boards of Travere Therapeutics, DePaul University, University of Phoenix and the Clinical Center Research Hospital Board of the National Institutes of Health. She has been recognized as one of Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare,” one of Becker’s “most admired CEOs in healthcare,” one of the “Top 25 Women in Health Care,” and one of the “Top 25 Minority Leaders in Healthcare.” Ms. Williams-Brinkley holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from DePaul University, Chicago. She was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from Spaulding University in Louisville, Ky. She is board certified in healthcare management as an ACHE Fellow.