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Ruth E. Williams-Brinkley, RN, FACHE

President, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Inc.

Ruth E. Williams-Brinkley is president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Inc. In this role, Williams-Brinkley oversees all of Kaiser Permanente’s care delivery and health plan operations in Washington, D.C., and suburban Maryland, Baltimore, and Northern Virginia. The Mid-Atlantic States Region operates 35 medical office buildings and has 798,668 members.

Williams-Brinkley reports to the group president for markets outside California, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Hospitals.

Williams-Brinkley has more than 40 years of executive experience in health care. She joined Kaiser Permanente in November 2017, serving as president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals of the Northwest. She oversaw all of Kaiser Permanente’s care delivery and health plan operations in Oregon and markets in Vancouver and Longview/Kelso, Washington.

Prior to that, she served as CEO of KentuckyOne Health, Kentucky’s largest integrated health system. KentuckyOne was a division of CommonSpirit Health, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health systems.

Before joining KentuckyOne, Williams-Brinkley served as president and CEO of Carondelet Health Network in Tucson, Arizona, and as president and CEO of Memorial Healthcare System in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Williams-Brinkley serves on the boards of Travere Therapeutics, DePaul University, University of Phoenix, and the Clinical Center Research Hospital Board of the National Institutes of Health. She has been recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the 100 Most Influential Leaders in Healthcare, one of the Top 25 Women in Healthcare, and one of the Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare, as well as one of Becker’s most admired CEOs in health care.

She holds a bachelor’s degree and Master of Science degree from De Paul University, and an honorary doctoral degree from Spaulding University in Louisville, Kentucky.