Jeffrey R Lewis

The board of trustees of Legacy Health Endowment (LHE) announced the hiring of Jeffrey R. Lewis as the newly-formed health care philanthropy's first president and chief executive officer. Founded in 2014, the Turlock-based LHE was created as a result of the sale of Emanuel Medical Center, Inc. to Doctors Medical Center of Modesto, Inc., which is affiliated with Tenet Health. The Endowment will provide funding and technical support for nonprofit health care facilities to create health care solutions within Stanislaus and Merced counties Lewis has worked in Congress, for three United States Senators, in the private sector, and in the foundation world as well. Immediately before joining LHE, he served as president of the Institute for Healthcare Innovation while concurrently serving as the chairman and CEO of the St. Paul's Foundation health care Project in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Lewis also spent 20 years at the Heinz Family Philanthropies as its president and chief operating officer. While at Heinz, he created and implemented a successful strategy to ensure HIV/AIDS patients in the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) could access life-saving medications at no cost and without being placed on waiting lists. Lewis holds a bachelor's degree in General Studies (with an emphasis on History/English) from the University of Michigan, a master's of Science degree in Gerontology from the University of Southern California, and a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) degree from the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon.