Anya Rader Wallack returning to Brown from Vermont for 2nd time – research/health role

Photo: Brown University, School of Public Health, 2018

Healthcare leader, Anya Rader Wallack, PhD will return to Rhode Island from Vermont to lead a five-year, $25 million grant-funded project “to bring research-based best practices into health care and public health services” at Brown University. She will maintain her position as Chair of the Board of Directors of OneVermont, the largest accountable care organization in Vermont, “for the foreseeable future”. According to VT Digger, OneVermont’s board is “made up of representatives from health care providers from around the state, and conducts its business remotely”.

Wallack left Rhode Island in 2021 after several leadership roles in Rhode Island, including the state and Brown University. At the time of her leaving she was Associate Director of the Center for Evidence Synthesis in Health and a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Health Services, Policy and Practice within Brown University’s School of Public Health, and teaching at Brown University. Prior to that, Wallack served as Acting Secretary of Health and Human Services, Medicaid Director and Director of HealthSource RI, the state’s health insurance exchange.

When she left Rhode Island she was asked about her advice to Brown as she departed, and she told ConvergenceRI in an interview published in RINewsToday, “I think the School of Public Health needs to continue to be relevant in Rhode Island, and to increase its relevance. There have been some great collaborations between the school and the state, related to COVID, and some great joint work on health care cost analysis. The School should find more ways to contribute to the discussions about Rhode Island health policy, and bring more science and intellectual power to those discussions.”

Before her positions in Rhode Island, Rader Wallack had been involved in Vermont’s failed effort to create a single-payer medical insurance plan, under a refurbished, reforming healthcare theme of “Medicare for all”.

She served in a variety of healthcare leadership roles under two governors in Vermont prior to her most recent stint at Brown University, and also held top positions in Massachusetts, including that of interim CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

According to Vermont Biz, Rader Wallack will be Administrative Director of the Advance Clinical and Translational Research program. (https://advancectr.brown.edu/) The program supports researchers who improve health care delivery and public health practice. Brown describes this program as “our awards, services, and resources are tailor-made to help investigators turn scientific discoveries into solutions that get to the heart of RI’s community health priorities”.

The “Advance-CTR” program is a partnership, according to Brown, of academic, hospitals, and community partners, specifically Brown University, University of Rhode Island, Care New England, Lifespan, Providence VA Medical Center, and Rhode Island Quality Institute.

She also will continue as a professor in the Brown School of Public Health.

The VT Digger notes, “The move will allow her to return to Rhode Island, where her [mother] and extended family are based…noting that the commute back and forth has been challenging. “For my own mental and physical health and the health of my family, this is just a good move for me,” she said, calling it a bittersweet day.”

While the position has been announced in Vermont, it has not been announced in Rhode Island.

Rader Wallack said, “I am very excited to be back in Rhode Island and back at Brown, working to improve health care delivery and public health practice from a new angle.”

Brown University School of Medicine did not respond to requests for comment.

Updated 10am, 7/31/2023