Raymond J. Baxter, PhD, is Kaiser Permanente’s senior vice president for Community Benefit, Research and Health Policy. As a member of Kaiser’s National Leadership Team, Dr. Baxter leads the organization’s activities to fulfill its social mission, including care and coverage for low income people, community health initiatives, health equity, environmental stewardship and support for community-based organizations. He also leads Kaiser Permanente’s work in research, health policy and diversity, and serves as President of KP International.

Dr. Baxter has more than 35 years of experience managing public health, hospital, longterm care and mental health programs, including heading the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.

Dr. Baxter also led The Lewin Group, a noted health policy firm. Dr. Baxter holds a doctorate from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. He serves on the Advisory Boards of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and the Duke University Institute for Health Innovation, the Board of the CDC Foundation, the Global Agenda Council on Health of the World Economic Forum, the Board of Archimedes, Inc. and is a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Population Health Improvement.

In 2001 the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health honored him as a Public Health Hero for his service in the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. In September 2006 he received the CDC Foundation Hero Award for addressing the health consequences of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast, and for his longstanding commitment to improving the health of communities.