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.

The Civitas Networks for Health Transition Board has named the following Board Officers:

The Civitas team is looking forward to shaping the future of the organization with such talented expert leaders. Our new organization, the result of two leadin national networks coming together, will bring about much needed change in health improvement and information exchange. We have a tremendous opportunity to scale regional solutions and to collectively drive meaningful transformation across the country.

“As we emerge from the pandemic, there is revived focus on the role of regional and statewide health information exchange and health improvement leaders to advance community health transformation in line with national goals for healthcare quality, cost, and equity,” notes interim CEO Lisa Bari.

Board chair Melissa Kotrys highlights, “We believe that, together, we can build a broader network to enhance and inform local, state, and federal health policy issues and private sector solutions which are built on data, best practices and trust.”

Vice Board Chair Marc Bennett remarks, “I’m thrilled to be joining Civitas Networks for Health as Vice Board Chair to help advance health care transformation. The coronavirus pandemic has accentuated the deep need for our health care system to evolve. It’s exciting to be a part of a new organization with a vision to innovate and have a broad impact on improving health care.”

Ana English, Past Board Chair draws attention to the expertise within the network and the importance of joining forces, “NRHI members have experience collecting and reporting on measures of healthcare quality and/or cost, designing initiatives to help healthcare providers and payers improve performance, and working directly with employers and other purchasers to push for value. SHIEC members have trusted data repositories, are experts in connectivity, and serve as problem solvers in their communities.”

Todd Rogow, Treasurer, reflects, “I feel a renewed energy and a sense of collectiveness as we come together to highlight our importance at national, regional, state and local community levels. This strengthens both our voice in D.C. and the value of our work in support of our communities.”

We hope you will join us in acknowledging our new board and officers and continue to share ways in which we can support your key areas of focus and work. Reach out with questions and ideas to

by Lisa Bari and Craig Brammer

Americans want change. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn have highlighted a glaring fact – despite access to greater healthcare technology and resources, the U.S. falls behind other nations in providing its citizens access to quality, affordable health care.

The Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement and the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative announced this week that they’re partnering to launch a new collaborative project called Civitas Networks for Health.

The initiative, set to launch formally on October 1, will build a platform to help local nonprofit health organizations and regional health information exchanges “support action at the local, state, and national levels to achieve policy goals for health care quality, cost, and equity through data-driven, collaborative, and transformative strategies,” according to SHIEC and NRHI.

Kicking off its annual conference in Arizona, the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC) announced it would be merging with the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement (NRHI) to form a new organization named Civitas Networks for Health.

The new organization will serve as a platform for local nonprofit health collaboratives and health information exchanges to work together on policy goals and improvement efforts. It will offer engagement opportunities and support action at the local, state, and national levels to achieve policy goals for health care quality, cost, and equity through data-driven, collaborative, and transformative strategies. The affiliation comes after a one-year due diligence process that will culminate on October 1, 2021, with the organizational launch of Civitas Networks for Health.

The Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement (NRHI) and the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC) have partnered to form Civitas Networks for Health, a new organization that aims to support local health information exchanges (HIEs) and collaboratives to strengthen the national interoperability infrastructure.

The partnership comes after a one-year due diligence process that will end on October 1, 2021, with the official organization launch.