Rebecca Onie (born 1977) is the co-founder with Rocco J Perla of The Health Initiative, a nationwide effort to spur a new conversation about - and new investments in - health. In 2017, she was elected to the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Eng ...

as a nationally recognized leader in the intersection of social determinants, population health, and healthcare delivery. Onie is also the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Emerita of Health Leads.

Life

In 1996, during her sophomore year at

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

, Rebecca Onie founded Health Leads (formerly Project HEALTH) with Dr. Barry Zuckerman, Chair of Pediatrics at

Boston Medical Center Boston Medical Center (BMC) is a non-profit 514-bed academic medical center in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest safety-net hospital and Level I trauma center in New England. BMC employs 1,466 physicians—including 711 residents and f ...

. As Executive Director of Health Leads, Onie oversaw the organization's growth to Providence and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. After attending Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the '' Harvard Law Review'' and research assistant for Professors

Laurence Tribe Laurence Henry Tribe (born October 10, 1941) is an American legal scholar who is a University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. He previously served as the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard Law School. A constitutional law sc ...

and

Lani Guinier Carol Lani Guinier (; April 19, 1950 – January 7, 2022) was an American educator, legal scholar, and civil rights theorist. She was the Bennett Boskey Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and the first woman of color appointed to a tenured p ...

, Onie clerked for the Honorable Diane P. Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She was also an associate at Miner, Barnhill & Galland P.C., a boutique law firm in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where she represented civil rights plaintiffs, health centers, affordable housing developers, and nonprofits. During this time, Onie served as founding Co-Chair of Health Leads' Board of Directors. She returned to Health Leads as CEO in February 2006. In 2009, she received a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

, for "individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction." ''O! Magazine'' named her to its 2010 Power List of twenty women who are "changing the world for the better." In 2012, Onie spoke at

TEDMED TEDMED is an annual conference focusing on health and medicine, with a year-round web-based community. TEDMED is an independent event operating under license from the nonprofit TED (conference), TED conference. Background , TEDMED staff oper ...

on the devastating impact of poverty on health. Entitled "Can We Rewrite the DNA of the Healthcare System", her talk focused on Health Leads' role in helping doctors connect their low-income patients with better access to health services, interventions, food and transportation. Onie is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a U.S. Ashoka Fellow. She received the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award in 2009, honoring Americans under the age of 40 whose commitment to service is changing their communities and the country; the Jane Rainie Opel ’50 Young Alumna Award in 2008, for outstanding contributions to the advancement of women; and the Do Something Brick Award for Community Leadership in 1999, for dynamic young people under the age of thirty with the passion and drive to improve their communities. Onie was named to Oprah Winfrey's 2010 O Power List of women who are "changing the world for the better." According to O: The Oprah Magazine, Onie and Health Leads "blew us away" by understanding "the power of the big picture." On July 28, 2011, The New York Times ran a commentary about Health Leads, written by David Bornstein (author), which referred to Health Leads as "one of the most impressive organizations in the country" at addressing the conditions that make people sick.

Awards

*2017

Membership *2015 American Public Health Association Avedis Donabedian Quality Award *2015 Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellowship *2014 Innovators in Health Award: Network for Excellence in Health Innovation *2013 Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award *2012 Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award *2012 Boston Business Journal's 40 under 40 *2012 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Young Leader Award *2011 Forbes magazine's list of top social entrepreneurs in the world *2011 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship *2009 MacArthur Fellows Program *2009 John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award *2008 U.S. Ashoka Fellow

Publications

*"Integrating Social Needs into Health Care: A Twenty-Year Case Study of Adaptation and Diffusion," by Rebecca Onie, Rocco Perla, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, Thomas H. Lee and James S. Marks. *"Population Health: The Ghost Aim," by Rocco Perla, Rebecca Onie and Thomas Lee, MD, MSc *"Accountable health communities and expanding our definition of health care." Perla, R, Onie R. Health Affairs Blog, March 2, 2016. *"Realigning Health with Care" by Rebecca Onie, Paul Farmer and Heidi Behforouz, Stanford Social Innovation Review Summer 2012

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Onie, Rebecca MacArthur Fellows Harvard College alumni Harvard Law School alumni 1977 births Living people Members of the National Academy of Medicine Ashoka Fellows