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Back to all ExpertsBettina Tweardy Riveros, J.D.
Chief Public Affairs Officer and Chief Health Equity Officer
Expertise & Research Interests
- Community Engagement
- Health Policy
- Strategy
- Vision
- Government Affairs
- Health Equity
Education
- J.D., Law, Villanova University School of Law, VIllanova, PA
- B.S., Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA
Bettina Tweardy Riveros, J.D.
Chief Public Affairs Officer and Chief Health Equity Officer
Bettina Tweardy Riveros, J.D., is chief public affairs officer and chief health equity officer for ChristianaCare. As chief public affairs officer, Riveros leads ChristianaCare’s comprehensive public affairs activities, building on the health system’s strong community relationships, reputation, brand and nonprofit mission to serve our neighbors as respectful, expert, caring partners in their health. She oversees all aspects of ChristianaCare’s external relations, marketing, communications, brand and reputation, government and community affairs, health policy, community benefit and investment and philanthropy, across the ChristianaCare enterprise.
As chief health equity officer, Riveros leads the Office of Health Equity and advances organization-wide initiatives to create equitable systems of care. In this role, she oversees initiatives to achieve health equity, address disparities in health care and health outcomes, ensure culturally and linguistically appropriate care, advocate for policies to improve health equity and advance an integrated social care framework to improve the health of every person in all the communities ChristianaCare serves.
Multimedia
Experience
ChristianaCare Earns National Award for Equity of Care from American Hospital Association
ChristianaCare Connects with Community Partners to Address Social Determinants of Health in Delaware
According to Riveros, the guiding principles of building strong community partnerships can be summed up in the phrase “nothing about us, without us.” This method of engaging community partners entails active listening. “We reached out to community partners, actively listened to them, and spent time assuring them that we understood their community needs, and that we planned to include that in our framework,” she says.
In 2019, ChristianaCare ushered in its first “community investment fund,” a unique strategic initiative based on collaboration with community partners to solve the social, behavioral, and environmental factors that amplify adverse health outcomes. Using its “bio-psycho-social” model of care, ChristianaCare works to address the conditions people grow, live, and play in, known as the social determinants of health.
Christiana Care to review health care in Delaware prisons
“We’ll be looking at care delivery structure and methods, some clinical workflow, how people are transferred for acute care, how medical staff take advantage of clinical data and analytics and clinical health records,” said Riveros.
Department Of Correction Initiates Review Of Correctional Healthcare System
ChristianaCare partners with Las Americas ASPIRA Academy
Why CEnR Matters for Health Equity
Community-Engaged Research (CEnR) has become the talk of the town in translational research. The National Institute of Health (NIH), the predominant funder of research in the United States, has made translational research a priority, and emphasizes community engagement in as a necessary component of translational research.
Closing the Gap in Health Disparities with Systems Engineering Techniques – One Language at a Time
- Honored for Service to Delaware Health Care Commission, 2014