About

About Whitney Perkins Witt

Whitney Perkins Witt, PhD, MPH, is an internationally recognized senior leader, executive, and scholar in population health, health equity, and health innovation. Dr. Witt has 30 years of experience leading multidisciplinary teams to develop and implement strategic health initiatives, conduct research, and launch innovative community health and technical assistance programs. In addition, she has grown portfolios of work, particularly in healthcare delivery and financing, to improve cost, quality, and patient-related outcomes. Dr. Witt has had a significant impact on the field, exemplified by significant federal and foundation funding, influential publications, and leadership positions.

Research and Leadership

Dr. Witt has a strong record of leading and executing sponsored research focused on equity and the SDOH. She has served as Principal Investigator/Program Director on multimillion-dollar, federally funded research studies and technical assistance projects sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), She has also served as a collaborator on projects funded by the Veterans Administration (VA), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In addition, Dr. Witt’s research has been funded by foundations, including the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation, the American Cancer Society (ACS), the Lynn Sage Cancer Research Foundation, and the Francis Family Foundation. Dr. Witt’s leadership recently secured research funding for the economic, social, and health-related impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, this research included using advanced data analytics to predict and forecast the COVID-19 pandemic to provide real-time actionable information to local, regional, and national public health officials.

Career Milestones

Over her career, Dr. Witt has worked across population health, public health, and social service sectors—spanning academia, private corporations, and nonprofit and governmental organizations. She has deep expertise in business development, strategy, and operations, particularly at IBM Watson Health, Truven Health Analytics, Ingenix Pharmaceutical Services, and the Medstat Group, Inc. As the inaugural Dean of the College of Health at Lehigh University, she provided strategic and operational leadership to establish the first educational programs focused on population health and health innovation and technology in the US. Over her career, she has been responsible for and managed multimillion-dollar P&L.

Partnership and Team Building

Dr. Witt is experienced in developing and maintaining key partnerships, engaging in collaborative decision-making, and fostering a culture of teamwork and transparency. She has developed and cultivated collaborations with federal and other key external partners. External partners include US-based and global academic institutions, corporations, non-governmental organizations, foundations, and non-federal governmental organizations to build networks to support initiatives. These collaborations have resulted in Dr. Witt’s success in fundraising campaigns.

Current Roles

Currently, Dr. Witt serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Health Equity Consulting (HEC) Group. HEC offers a comprehensive range of solutions, from substantive and methodological approaches to technical strategies, all focused on achieving health equity. The organization’s areas of expertise include academic entrepreneurship, community needs assessments, evaluation, advanced data analytics, and technical assistance. Under Dr. Witt’s leadership, HEC provides solutions that address the complex challenges of health equity.

As the Vice President of the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) at Highmark Health, Dr. Witt led and oversaw Highmark’s enterprise-wide community health and SDOH initiatives and the research and evaluation strategy. She led the design and supervised geographically specific “place-based” initiatives. In addition, she worked closely with Highmark’s Enterprise Data and Analytics Department, leading crucial studies and employing evaluation frameworks to comprehend and address inequities resulting from social factors. Dr. Witt supported and championed the SDOH strategy to achieve positive member and community health outcomes.

Academic Contributions

Prior to joining Highmark, Dr. Witt served as the vice president of AmeriSpeak, which is NORC at the University of Chicago’s premier multi-client, panel-based research platform, where she oversaw the development and growth of AmeriSpeak-centered business among Federal sponsors.

Before joining NORC, Dr. Witt served as the Inaugural Dean and Professor of the College of Health at Lehigh University. As Dean, she developed a 5-year financial model and operating and strategic plan, established the first undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs in population health, and increased the diversity of university faculty by recruiting, hiring, and promoting talent from different racial, cultural, economic, and ethnic backgrounds. She also introduced key research resources for innovative data-driven science and established the first Endowed College of Health Scholarship Program to support undergraduate students or those with financial needs. In less than two years, she raised more than $5M to support the initiatives of the College of Health.

Before joining Lehigh, Dr. Witt served as the Director of the Center for Maternal and Child Health Research at IBM Watson Health. She led multimillion-dollar Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) research projects and technical assistance programs. In addition, she spearheaded research development and strategic planning efforts focusing on maternal, child, and family health and well-being. Dr. Witt led teams in providing technical support to Medicaid/CHIP agencies in value-based care and payment reform. This support helped states select, design, and test value-based payment (VBP) approaches that sustain care delivery models that demonstrate improved maternal and infant health and children’s oral health outcomes.

Innovations in Health Technology

Dr. Witt is a leader and a visionary in the field of health innovation and technology. While at IBM, Dr. Witt led teams to develop award-winning, innovative healthcare delivery solutions using advanced data analytics, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. These techniques aimed to address the US and the world’s most salient health issues. In recognition of this work, Dr. Witt won several prestigious Watson Health and IBM-wide honors. She won the IBM Watson Health Cognitive Competition. Across the entire corporation worldwide, she was honored with the IBM Solutions Lab Services Award and the IBM Appreciation for Expertise Award. In addition, she is an IBM Certified Practitioner of Cognitive Solutions.

Dr. Witt is a preeminent thought leader in population health and advanced data analytics. Using this expertise, she has led the development of cutting-edge research resources to support research. While Dean, she spearheaded the effort to create innovative data-driven science in the College of Health. These research resources included the Health Data Warehouse, the Biospecimen Repository, the Artificial Intelligence and Data Visualization Laboratory, the Virtual Reality Lab, the Survey Research Laboratory, and the Community Partnership.
Engagement Space. As a survey researcher, she has also created one-of-a-kind resources to study maternal and child health. Data linkage and statistical matching have been integral approaches in her research to understanding a broader range of social determinants of health.

Mentorship and Publications

Dr. Witt has an exceptional track record for promoting the professional growth of staff and other mentees. Her model has successfully enhanced the staff’s theoretical, substantive, and methodological skills, advanced research activities, and developed their professional responsibility and integrity. Dr. Witt was honored with the Outstanding Mentorship Award from the Academic Pediatric Association (APA) and an award from AcademyHealth for Mentorship for Career Development for her contributions to professional development.

Dr. Witt has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles and five book chapters and earned numerous leadership and academic awards. Her research program has focused on three areas of expertise: 1) the use of advanced data analytics to support health, health care, and policy decision-making in creating digital solutions. 2) implementing value-based payment reform programs to improve health and healthcare outcomes; and 3) the key social, policy, and healthcare drivers for improving child, maternal, and family health. Of note, one of Dr. Witt’s articles was named the Best Article in the 25th Anniversary Collection of the journal Women’s Health Issues.

Dr. Witt is a 28-year member of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the recent past Chair of the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Section. As a key leader, she provides thought leadership to over 2,500 maternal and child health professionals.

Dr. Witt has extensive experience with teaching, mentorship, and service at the graduate level and has held full-time academic appointments at Harvard Medical School, Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. At the University of Wisconsin—Madison, she served as the Principal Investigator of the Lifecourse Epidemiology and Family Health Lab (LEAF). In addition, she led a research program and mentored students, fellows, and healthcare providers about maternal and child health.

Educational Background

She earned her Doctorate and Master’s degrees in Health Policy and Management and Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a post-doctoral research fellowship in Pediatric Health Services Research at the Harvard University School of Medicine. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Law and Women’s Studies at Hampshire College.