NEW YORK—The Rockefeller Foundation, celebrating 100 years of global innovation, today announced that Jeanette Vega has been appointed to the role of Managing Director. Dr. Vega will lead the Foundation’s work in Health, including development of strategy, implementation of the Foundation’s current Transforming Health Systems Initiative, and pursuit of new work in the field. Dr. Vega will be based in New York.
“I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Jeanette Vega to The Rockefeller Foundation,” said Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation. “Jeanette is a proven leader in the global health arena and brings with her real in-depth experience in public health. The Rockefeller Foundation has a long and storied history in the field of public health, and as we approach our centennial year, I look forward to working with Jeanette to continue the Foundation’s commitment to impact in the field.”
“I am delighted and honored to join The Rockefeller Foundation at an extremely exciting time for global health,” said Dr. Jeanette Vega. “As critical issues such as the link between social determinants and health equity, along with the need to increase Universal Health Coverage within health systems, are becoming an increasingly prominent part of the global development agenda, I am inspired to have the opportunity to lead the Foundation’s global health work into its next phase.”
Dr. Vega joins the Foundation from the Universidad del Dessarrollo de Chile, where she served as Director of the Center of Public Health Policy. Prior to her time at the Universidad del Dessarrollo de Chile, Dr. Vega was Vice Minister of health in Chile, leading the country’s 13-step agenda for equity in health. In 2003, Dr. Vega served as a Director at the World Health Organization in Geneva, where she led the equity in health agenda, looking at the social determinants of health and health systems. Dr. Vega started her career as a medical doctor in Chile, where she specialized in Family Medicine. She went on to earn a master’s degree in Public health from the Universidad de Chile and a Ph.D. in Public Health from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
About The Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation’s mission to promote the well-being of people throughout the world has remained unchanged since its founding in 1913. Today, that mission is applied to an era of rapid globalization. Our vision is that this century will be one in which globalization’s benefits are more widely shared and its challenges are more easily weathered. To realize this vision, the Foundation seeks to achieve two fundamental goals in our work. First, we seek to build resilience that enhances individual, community and institutional capacity to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of acute crises and chronic stresses. Second, we seek to promote growth with equity in which the poor and vulnerable have more access to opportunities that improve their lives. In order to achieve these goals, the Foundation constructs its work into time-bound initiatives that have defined objectives and strategies for impact. These initiatives address challenges that lie either within or at the intersections of five issue areas: basic survival safeguards, global health, environment and climate change, urbanization, and social and economic security. For more information, please visit www.rockefellerfoundation.org
Media Inquiries:
Laura Gordon, 212-852-8216, lgordon@rockfound.org