April Joy Damian, PhD, MSc, CHPM, PMP, has been named Vice President and Director of the Weitzman Institute. Dr. Damian, a widely published and highly respected researcher, joined Community Health Center, Inc. in May 2019 as Weitzman’s Associate Director.
Dr. Damian now leads a team of more than 50 researchers and education specialists, with programs reaching into all fifty states and a growing international community seeking to improve care for underserved patients. Among programs launched by the Weitzman Institute are a national school for medical assistants (NIMAA) and an e-consult platform offering specialty consults to more than one million patients in California and elsewhere (ConferMed).
Weitzman’s national reputation positioned it to be of immediate service during the pandemic, including a weekly virtual learning series started in March 2020 through which Weitzman experts instructed thousands of providers across the U.S. in navigating COVID-19.
Dr. Damian holds faculty appointments at the UConn School of Medicine, Wesleyan University, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of California, Berkley, she received graduate degrees from Harvard (MSc) and Johns Hopkins (PhD). Her passion for health equity and social justice is reflected in numerous high-profile publications, including The Lancet and The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Misinformation Review.
“The Weitzman Institute is stronger and reaching more people than ever, and under Dr. Damian’s leadership its reputation and emerging global footprint will continue to expand,” said Mark Masselli, President/Founder, Community Health Center, Inc. “Dr. Damian’s national profile, along with her outstanding team, will take the Weitzman Institute to new heights as it leads the way on equity and social justice in health care.”