Ruth Williams-Brinkley, regional president of Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic States, has been recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review in its list of 113 great leaders in healthcare 2022. The list features leaders who and are championing innovation in the healthcare industry and successfully guiding their organizations through the COVID-19 pandemic, including Kaiser Permanente leaders, Greg Adams, CEO, Kaiser Permanente and Janet Liang, executive vice president, group president and COO of Care Delivery for Kaiser Permanente.
Williams-Brinkley oversees all of Kaiser Permanente’s care delivery and health plan operations in Washington, D.C., and suburban Maryland, Baltimore, and Northern Virginia. The region is comprised of 36 medical office buildings and has nearly 800,000 members.
“I’m honored to be part of this list of tremendous health care leaders that includes current and past colleagues,” said Ms. Williams-Brinkley. “I am truly humbled to be recognized among leaders such as Greg and Janet who are forging the way forward on driving affordability, quality and innovation in health care.”
During her tenure as president of the region, Williams-Brinkley has led the Kaiser Permanente team through the COVID-19 pandemic, including shifting operations to ramp up virtual care offerings, vaccinating the Mid-Atlantic community and keeping the Kaiser Permanente team and the community safe. Additionally, under Williams-Brinkley’s leadership, Kaiser Permanente launched called the Mid-Atlantic Community Network, a social health network that connects community members with needed social services, such as food, housing or healthcare assistance – which has made 1,671 referrals since its inception.
“Working with Ruth and watching her career flourish has been an honor,” said Kim Horn, executive vice president, group president, Markets Outside California, Kaiser Permanente. “Not only is she a strong innovator and collaborator, but she’s also preparing Kaiser Permanente’s next generation of leaders, always making time to mentor more junior employees.”
Williams-Brinkley has more than 40 years of executive experience in health care. She joined Kaiser Permanente in November 2017, serving as president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals of the Northwest. She oversaw all of Kaiser Permanente’s care delivery and health plan operations in Oregon and markets in Vancouver and Longview/Kelso, Washington. Prior to that, she served as CEO of KentuckyOne Health, Kentucky’s largest integrated health system. KentuckyOne was a division of CommonSpirit Health, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health systems. Before joining KentuckyOne, Williams-Brinkley served as president and CEO of Carondelet Health Network in Tucson, Arizona, and as president and CEO of Memorial Healthcare System in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
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 frequently been recognized as an innovative healthcare leader by Modern Healthcare, Becker’s and the Maryland Daily Record.
