For immediate release Contact: Denise Bollheimer
September 26, 2008 Chair – Healthy Memphis Common Table
901-448-7046;
MEMPHIS, TN — Healthy Memphis Common Table welcomes Reneé S. Frazier, FACHE, MHSA, as its first executive director, effective January 12, 2009. Ms. Frazier is relocating to Collierville, Tennessee from Pittsburgh, PA. She will be working with Common Table leadership throughout the fall in preparation for expanded Mid-South health improvement activities in 2009.
The Healthy Memphis Common Table started as a small collaborative of health coalition leaders around a Memphis dining room table in 2002. It has grown to a major force in Mid-South health improvement activities. The Common Table currently works with community partners on four key initiatives: reversing the Mid-South growth of obesity and diabetes, Aligning Forces for Quality (forces4quality.org), the Memphis Quality Initiative (memphisquality.org), and serving as the region’s official Chartered Value Exchange (hhs.gov/valuedriven/cornerstone12.pdf) – the first chosen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 501(c) 3 not-for-profit collaborative now has over 800 community partners affiliated with over 150 organizations and businesses.
“We are delighted to have attracted Ms. Frazier to the Memphis region. She has significant talent in provider, business and consumer engagement. Her experience with insurance, hospital management, and coalitions will be extremely valuable to Mid-South efforts to improve health and health care, “ said C. Denise Bollheimer, board chair of the Healthy Memphis Common Table.
What is different about Ms. Frazier compared to many in the health care industry is that she is especially interested in how life outside hospitals affects patients seen inside hospitals – particularly in urban and rural areas. Her new role with the Healthy Memphis Common Table is a good fit because she is very interested in what not-for-profit organizations, hospitals, governments and corporations can do together to create a supportive and economic infrastructure that bolsters the health of our community.
Before joining the Healthy Memphis Common Table, Ms. Frazier served as the regional senior vice president and executive officer of VHA Pennsylvania, an area office of VHA Inc., a national hospital alliance of more than 2,200 health care organizations across the U. S. VHA is the nation’s largest hospital and health care group-buying organization with over $22 billion in sales. VHA also provides services to members in the areas of clinical performance improvement networks, benchmarking and supply chain analytics. The VHA Pennsylvania office serves 38 member-hospital organizations with $1.1 billion in sales.
Before joining VHA Pennsylvania, Ms. Frazier was vice president of corporate strategic planning for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland (CareFirst, Inc.), where she was responsible for corporate-wide planning and strategic acquisitions. She has also served as vice president for managed care consulting and health management resources, and as chief operating officer for Lutheran Health Care Corporation. She has been the regional operations manager of a for-profit ambulatory chain.
She has served on the advisory board of the Healthy Black Families Project at the University of Pittsburgh. Governor Rendell and the Pennsylvania Office of Economic Development named her as one of the “Top 50 Women in Business” in Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Courier recognized her as one of Pittsburgh's “Women of Influence.” She has participated in the African American Corporate Executive Leadership Alliance and has served on the board of the Pittsburgh Regional Health Care Initiative, a collaborative similar to the Healthy Memphis Common Table.
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Healthy Memphis Common Table
PO BOX 382998 • Germantown, TN 38138-2898 • 901-748-1122 • FAX 901-748-8880