Commonwealth_ Eighteen months after completing her MBA, Alicia Hardy, a graduate of the Yale School of Management’s (SOM) MBA for Executives program, witnessed the real-world implementation of a healthcare equity initiative she conceptualized during her time at Yale. Hardy, a Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellow in Health Equity Leadership, had proposed a strategic merger between two federally qualified health centers in California as part of her fellowship capstone project. By mid-2023, she successfully executed this merger, exemplifying the transformative potential of integrating business strategies with healthcare equity principles.
The merger united OLE Health and CommuniCare Health Centers into a single entity, CommuniCare+OLE, a primary care provider serving over 70,000 underserved patients across Napa, Solano, and Yolo counties in California. Hardy now leads the organization as its CEO. Her vision was to strengthen and ensure the sustainability of the regional healthcare safety net system. “The goal was to create more strength and sustainability in the regional healthcare safety net system,” Hardy explained.
The Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship, developed in collaboration with the Commonwealth Fund and endowed through a gift from Robert C. Pozen, equips healthcare professionals with the leadership capabilities and business acumen necessary to address systemic inequities within the healthcare landscape. The program’s capstone projects challenge fellows to design actionable strategies that employ data and business tools to enhance healthcare access and quality for underserved communities.
As Hardy reflected on her journey, she credited the fellowship for offering her a comprehensive framework that merges equity-focused thinking with systemic healthcare solutions. “As a leader, it’s my responsibility to seek the highest level of training and education in the equity area, and that’s what this fellowship offers,” Hardy stated. During her time at SOM, she acquired critical skills in financial due diligence, multi-year financial forecasting, and strategic investment planning. These competencies enabled her to balance projected revenue increases with efforts to improve employee wages while expanding services for vulnerable populations.
The fellowship has also been a platform for other transformative initiatives. Steven Starks, a 2023 graduate and clinical assistant professor at the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine, utilized his capstone project to explore workforce inclusivity within medical professions. Starks, who serves on the board of the American Psychiatric Association, analyzed the organizational structures of prominent medical societies to evaluate their equity and workforce inclusion programs. “My research revealed that meaningful change relies on institutional partnerships to achieve more diverse representation,” Starks noted. His work underscored the pivotal role of medical societies, alongside academic institutions, in shaping a diverse and inclusive physician workforce.
Another fellow, Amaziah Coleman, a medical officer in the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation, focused her capstone project on addressing health inequities in NIH clinical trials. Recognizing the disparities in clinical trial diversity, Coleman developed strategies to embed health equity within clinical trial networks. “The goals were to begin the strategic planning necessary to standardize equity frameworks across my organization’s clinical trial networks, to enhance diverse representation, and to address disparities in asthma and allergic disease research,” Coleman shared. Her work drew heavily on business school concepts, enabling her to identify key stakeholders and leverage data-driven approaches to drive organizational change.
Coleman emphasized the instrumental role of Yale SOM’s resources, particularly its librarians, in facilitating her research. “They directed me to resources for obtaining and analyzing crucial marketplace data,” she noted. The frameworks taught in her courses, along with this support, empowered her to design impactful strategies tailored to her organization’s objectives.
These projects demonstrate the broad applicability of the Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship’s mission to advance health equity. By equipping fellows with tools to address systemic challenges, the program fosters innovative solutions that create tangible impacts. Hardy’s efforts to merge OLE Health and CommuniCare Health Centers demonstrate the application of strategic business principles to enhance healthcare delivery for marginalized communities. Similarly, Starks’ and Coleman’s projects highlight the diverse ways in which fellows are using their training to advocate for equity and systemic change within their respective fields.
“The fellowship gives us a healthcare framework that focuses on issues of equity and systemic change, particularly for the most vulnerable,” Hardy concluded. By cultivating leaders who are prepared to tackle complex healthcare challenges, the program is driving progress toward a more equitable and sustainable healthcare system.
