Suzanne Brundage, program director of the Children's Health Initiative at United Hospital Fund, has been selected as UHF's first Patricia S. Levinson Fellow. The fellowship, which will be awarded annually, was established through the generous support of the Robert A. and Patricia S. Levinson Award Fund at the New York Community Trust. Its purpose is to advance UHF's work to improve health care for vulnerable populations.
Patricia S. Levinson
Patricia S. Levinson was a vice chairman of UHF's board at the time of her death in 2015. She was an active board member for more than 20 years, and involved as a volunteer with UHF for more than 30, with a keen interest in health policy and deep commitment to quality health care for every New Yorker.
“UHF is enormously grateful to Pat and Bob Levinson for this opportunity to honor Pat by investing in a UHF leader working to develop new strategies and approaches to building a more effective and equitable health care system,” said James R. Tallon, Jr., president of United Hospital Fund. “Suzanne's work is helping promote optimal health and development during the first five years of life, with a special focus on the 40 percent of New York's children living in low-income families.”
Suzanne Brundage
A core tenet of UHF's Children's Health Initiative, which was launched in 2015, is to harness the untapped opportunity for pediatric primary care practices to identify psychosocial risks to early childhood development, and connect children and families to supports and resources that can help mitigate those risks. Over the next two years, UHF will partner with primary care practitioners to build sustainable early childhood development programs focused on social determinants of health; inform Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) payment and delivery system policies in support of healthy early childhood development; and integrate the perspectives of parents and early childhood educators in the design of pediatric primary care efforts.
“Ensuring that all young children in New York have equal opportunity to receive high-quality health care and a chance to be successful in life is a passion of mine,” said Suzanne Brundage. “With decades of scientific evidence suggesting the value of early childhood interventions and the extent of health care reform currently underway in New York, UHF's focus on kids is particularly strategic and timely. I truly believe we all do our best work when we are inspired by the extraordinary service and leadership of others, and I am grateful our children's health work will continue in Pat Levinson's name.”
Suzanne Brundage is the author of the UHF white paper Seizing the Moment: Strengthening Children's Primary Care in New York, which lays out a vision for more effective pediatric primary care in New York. She is an inaugural member of the Children's Health Leadership Network established by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, The David & Lucille Packard Foundation, and Atlantic Philanthropies. Prior to joining UHF in 2014, Ms. Brundage was the assistant director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. She has also worked with Catholic AIDS Action in Namibia, Nationwide Children's Hospital, and Boston Medical Center. A graduate of Bennington College, where she serves as a trustee, she holds a master's degree from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.