Meet Lisa Bari, Interim CEO of Civitas Networks for Health

If you have not already met Lisa Bari and you are curious to know more about her background and passion for health improvement, health IT, leadership, and the expertise she brings to Civitas Networks for Health, read on!

Lisa Bari is poised and ready to lead our national network of changemakers. Throughout her life she has been moved by activism and organizing. She had the good fortune of being inspired by an action-oriented family. Lisa notes, “If I feel like something is wrong, I want to make it right.”

Lisa started her career in Silicon Valley working in tech startups and in communications and marketing. It was through these experiences that she realized the strength of her abilities in understanding the complexity of technology while also being able to communicate about it in effective ways. She has also always had strong beliefs about health equity and health care as a human right. “I care deeply about health care. Everyone should have access to high quality care.”

Both Lisa’s inspired upbringing and early career in technology and media fueled her drive to pursue her Master of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and to go on as a civil servant working at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.  She led health IT and interoperability policy for the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus model and helped author the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access rule. To Lisa, it is clear that both health IT and interoperable data exchange are critical utilities in achieving health equity.

On leadership, Lisa encourages all professionals, and in particular women and underrepresented people, in the health IT and policy to dig in, go deep, and take the time to learn the complexities of the field. To do this, she calls attention to the importance of being curious and asking a lot of questions. She highlights the significance of educating oneself and continuing the quest of knowledge.

As Lisa gets ready to head her new Civitas team, she looks forward to increasing diversity within the organization as we grow. She feels, “We have an obligation to be inclusive and helpful when bringing others along.” Additionally, she states, “Help your colleagues learn and become more credible in the field.”

To learn even more about Civitas’ new leader, listen to her recent HIT Like a Girl podcast interview.

We also encourage you to follow Lisa on Twitter @lisabari and to follow Civitas Networks for Health @civitas4health.