Jacqueline Ortiz Named Vice President for Heath Equity and Cultural Competence

Jacqueline Ortiz, M. Phil., has been appointed vice president for Heath Equity and Cultural Competence. In this role, Ortiz is responsible for implementing a comprehensive health equity strategy aligned with overall organizational goals. She is responsible for developing strategic clinical partnerships, creating and implementing a portfolio of innovative programs and evidence-based initiatives to identify, evaluate and eliminate disparities in health care process and outcomes. Her focus is on building the organizational capacity to reduce the incidence of disease and improve health outcomes, advance equitable health care services, and reduce health disparities for identified conditions and target populations.

In her prior role as the Director for Health Equity and Cultural Competence, Ortiz led the system’s healthcare equity initiatives to identify, understand, measure and reduce disparities affecting the community served by ChristianaCare. She has over twenty years of experience researching, teaching and working in cultural competence and health equity, social networks, and economic sociology.

Ortiz holds a Master of Philosophy in Sociology from Yale University, a Master of Sociology from Boston College and a Bachelor of Sociology from Occidental College. Prior to joining ChristianaCare, she worked as an organizational consultant in Latin America and the United States in both the public and private sectors. She has consulted for Fortune 500 companies, the government of Argentina and multi‐lateral organizations like the World Bank and Transparency International.

She reports to Bettina Tweardy Riveros, JD, chief health equity officer and senior vice president of Government Affairs and Community Engagement.