Washington Health Foundation

Greg Vigdor served as President & CEO of the Washington Health Foundation from 1992 to 2013. He was the founder of the organization’s revival in 1992, through the creation of the Rural Hospital Assistance Program and the Foundation’s Rural Initiative. Greg soon added to the Foundation’s rural health leadership work a variety of statewide and local program and leadership aimed at major health improvement across the state of Washington for the next twenty years.

Among his major achievements were a series of WHF direct service access programs that helped over 10,000 Washingtonians each year, millions of dollars in grants made to improve health and the health care system, and an innovative set of education and leadership programs. Under Greg’s active leadership, WHF also pursued major system reform through its Transforming Health Care program, the Healthiest State in the Nation Campaign and the Center for People’s Health.

In 2013, Greg was recruited by the Arizona Hospital and Health Care Association to serve as its President and CEO. Greg’s first assignment was to help pass Medicaid Expansion fro Arizona, and was instrumental in what became the first Republican controlled state to do so under Obamacare. He also led a turnaround and revival of the Association, stabilizing a struggling association and building into a health leadership organization serving the people of Arizona. In 2016, he took on the challenge of preserving the access protections of the Affordable Care Act as these faced potential repeal, insisting that a workable replacement must be in place first. In the absence of such a proposal, he led a statewide effort to convince Senator John McCain to vote no on the proposals before Congress.

Greg brought a long and varied health care background to these leadership positions with over 40 years of working across the health care system, including as a nurse manager within a hospitals, a policy analysis and lobbyist for various organizations, and as a creative developed of system change approaches. Among these roles were service as Executive Director of the Association of Washington Public Hospital Districts, Vice President for Policy and Advocacy at the Washington State Hospital Association, and Director of Public Policy for the New Mexico Hospital Association.

Greg’s academic credentials include a Masters of Health Administration from the University of Washington with the Program Nomination for Outstanding Student in 1983, a juris doctorate from the George Washington University Nation Law Center with honors, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Connecticut with Distinction in Political Science. He was chosen to be one of two Fellows for the American Hospital Association/Blue Cross Blue Shield Association prestigious national Health Leadership Fellowship.

Greg has written extensively on health and health care leadership matters over the years, and has also spoken extensively on these topics. He has been recognized for his leadership and innovative approach to health problem solving by many, and continues to explore ways to improve health in his new volunteer capacity. Among the most important roles in this regard in his current service as the volunteer President of the Washington Health Foundation.