Robert Ferguson, MPH

Robert Ferguson is the chief policy officer for the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) and its supporting organizations—the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI), Health Careers Futures (HCF), and the Women’s Health Activist Movement Global (WHAMglobal). In addition to advancing JHF’s policy priorities, he oversees the Pennsylvania Perinatal Quality Collaborative (PA PQC), the Pennsylvania Perinatal Action Collaborative, the Coalition for Advancing Safer Healthcare (CASH), the statewide HealthChoices Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Learning Network, and the PA Teen Mental Health Coalition. He also helped to establish the PA Perinatal Telephonic Psychiatric Consultation Service Program, and co-chairs the PA Health Funders Collaborative (PHFC).

Previously, he facilitated the Pennsylvania Community Health Worker Steering Group and a statewide doula advisory group that laid the initial groundwork towards creating pathways for certification and reimbursement. He also managed the National Patient Safety Board (NPSB) Advocacy Coalition, the Regional Autonomous Patient Safety Initiative, the Reinvesting in Health Initiative that tested perinatal bundled payment models, the Pittsburgh Safer Childbirth City initiative, the statewide Opioid Use Disorders Centers of Excellence (COE) Learning Network, and projects funded by AHRQ and CMMI that implemented evidenced-based models for depression and substance misuse in primary care settings, among other JHF programs.

Ferguson served as a Health and Aging Policy Fellow at CMS’ Center for Clinical Standards & Quality, where he worked on the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative with a focus on integrating physical and behavioral health care. He earned his bachelor’s degree in health sciences at Northeastern University and a master’s degree in public health at the University of Pittsburgh.