National Quality Forum (NQF) Welcomes Three New Members to Board of Directors

National Quality Forum (NQF) logo

Leah Binder, Tochi Iroku-Malize, and Suzanne Miyamoto join NQF Board as at-large directors

Each of these three extraordinary individuals stands out as a leader, influencer, and unflagging healthcare quality champion”

— Dana Gelb Safran, ScD, President & CEO, NQF

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, January 4, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Three outstanding healthcare industry leaders have joined the Board of Directors of the National Quality Forum (NQF). Today, NQF announced the addition of new at-large directors: Leah Binder, MA, MGA, President & CEO of The Leapfrog Group; Tochi Iroku-Malize, MD, MPH, MBA, FAAFP, SFHM, Senior Vice President of Family Medicine for

Northwell Health, and current President of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP); and Suzanne Miyamoto, PhD, RN, FAAN, CEO of the American Academy of Nursing.

“It is a pleasure to welcome these three accomplished healthcare experts and nationally respected leaders to NQF’s Board of Directors,” said NQF Board Chair Cristie Upshaw Travis, MSHA, Co-CEO, HealthCareTN. “With this year's Board recruitment process, NQF sought to ensure representation of both physician and nursing leadership as well as to continue to bring strong representation of purchasers, patients, caregivers, and consumers. Leah Binder, Tochi Iroku-Malize, and Suzanne Miyamoto bring these diverse perspectives and experiences, and are exceptional additions to our Board.”

In its pivotal role providing strategic direction to the organization, the NQF Board of Directors intentionally represents the full and diverse range of public and private healthcare stakeholders. The Board includes healthcare consumers, health plans, health professionals, provider organizations, public and community health agencies, group purchasers of healthcare, quality improvement organizations, and healthcare industry suppliers.

“Each of these three extraordinary individuals stands out as a leader, influencer, and unflagging healthcare quality champion,” said Dana Gelb Safran, ScD, President & CEO, NQF. “Their extensive knowledge and steadfast commitment to quality are unmistakable. I look forward to working with Leah Binder, Tochi Iroku-Malize, and Suzanne Miyamoto, and our returning board members, as we continue to advance the nation’s portfolio of quality measures and their uses to improve quality, safety, affordability, health, and health equity for all people.”

The three new NQF Board members are:

Leah Binder, MA, MGA, President & CEO, The Leapfrog Group
Leah Binder is President & CEO of The Leapfrog Group, representing employers and other purchasers of healthcare calling for improved safety and quality in hospitals. As a regular contributor to Forbes.com, Harvard Business Review, and other top tier publications, she is a fierce advocate for eliminating avoidable healthcare harm. She has been named to Becker’s list of the 50 most powerful people in healthcare and consistently cited by Modern Healthcare among the 100 most influential people and top 25 women in healthcare. Under her leadership, The Leapfrog Group launched the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, which assigns letter grades assessing the safety of general hospitals across the country. She has also fostered groundbreaking innovations in the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey, including partnerships to eliminate early elective deliveries, central line-associated bloodstream infections and safe use of health technology. She has served on numerous national boards and councils and holds master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communication and Fels Institute of Government, as well as a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University.

Tochi Iroku-Malize, MD, MPH, MBA, FAAFP, SFHM, Senior Vice President, Family Medicine, Northwell Health
Tochi Iroku-Malize oversees Northwell’s Department of Family Medicine, supporting Northwell hospitals’ family medicine departments and the Zucker School of Medicine. She has served at South Shore University Hospital, formerly Southside Hospital, as a hospitalist, director of the hospitalist program, and director of the family medicine residency program. Board certified in family medicine as well as hospice and palliative medicine, Dr. Iroku-Malize is President of AAFP and a Senior Fellow in hospital medicine of the Society of Hospital Medicine. She is an active member of the New York State Chapter of AAFP, the American College of Physician Executives, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, the Association of Departments of Family Medicine, and the Association of Family Medicine Program Directors. She received her medical degree from the University of Nigeria, and earned a Master of Public Health in health policy and management from Columbia University and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts.

Suzanne Miyamoto, PhD, RN, FAAN, CEO, American Academy of Nursing
Suzanne Miyamoto is Chief Executive Officer of the American Academy of Nursing, dedicated to improving health and achieving health equity by impacting policy through nursing leadership, innovation, and science. Previously, she was Chief Policy Officer at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, overseeing health and higher education policy, government affairs, strategic outreach and analytics, as well as diversity and inclusion. She has also held policy positions with the National Institutes of Health, the State Commission on Patient Safety for the Michigan Health and Safety Coalition, and Capitol Hill. Dr. Miyamoto is a 2014 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellow and is on faculty at the Georgetown University, School of Nursing. She holds a Master of Science and a PhD in Nursing from the University of Michigan, where she also earned a BS in Nursing and a BA in Psychology.