Randy Oostra, CEO of Toledo-based ProMedica health system, brings 40 years of health care and management expertise to LISC’s national board. His appointment comes at a time when LISC is intensifying its work to upend health disparities across the U.S., by investing in the well-being of people and places. It’s a strategy that Oostra has pioneered through ProMedica, working to boost good health outcomes and opportunity for local communities.
LISC names pioneering ProMedica CEO to national board
Randy Oostra has spearheaded efforts to raise standards of living as a route to better health
NEW YORK (January 18, 2018)—In a move that recognizes the clear connections between economic health, community health, and public health, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) has named a top hospital system executive to its national board of directors.
The election of Randy Oostra, CEO of ProMedica, comes just weeks after LISC announced it would purposefully pursue health outcomes and embed new health metrics in the $10 billion of investments it will make in underinvested urban and rural communities over the next decade. He will add his expertise to LISC’s 25-member board, led by former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and including some of the country’s top financial, philanthropic and community leaders.
At ProMedica, Oostra has helped drive efforts that expand the scope of health interventions by investing in the well-being of people and places, said Maurice Jones, LISC president and CEO. ProMedica has supported programs to develop affordable housing, eliminate food deserts, improve skills for underemployed workers, and increase opportunities for residents in the Ohio and Michigan communities it serves.
“We know, both from data and our own experience, that a person’s health is influenced by far more than what happens in a doctor’s office or hospital room,” said Jones. “Randy has emerged as a national thought-leader on these issues, demonstrating how a major health provider can leverage its expertise, its community connections and its capital to directly impact how well people live.”
Based in Toledo, ProMedica is a not-for-profit health system with more than 4.7 million patient encounters each year. It includes 13 hospitals and services 27 counties in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. For the last several years, ProMedica has collaborated with the local LISC program in Toledo on initiatives that raise incomes, reduce blight and improve health.
“LISC is making a tremendous impact in communities across the United States and we (ProMedica) value our partnership with the organization. We are proud of what we have accomplished so far together, including the establishment of a new Financial Opportunity Center that is helping area families improve their financial health and overall well-being,” said Oostra. “As an anchor institution, ProMedica is in a unique position to help enrich people’s lives and revitalize our communities, and we take this responsibility very seriously.”
Oostra has worked in health care throughout his nearly 40-year career. He was named president and CEO of ProMedica in 2009, after more than a decade of leading a number of the hospitals that are part of the ProMedica system. Prior to that, he held senior positions at several health facilities in Minnesota, Michigan and South Dakota.
Among his many professional and community volunteer activities, Oostra has served on the board of the American Hospital Association, chaired the board of the Toledo Symphony and chaired the Downtown Toledo Development Corporation. He has a doctorate in management from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, two masters’ degrees from the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin, and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa.
About LISC
With residents and partners, LISC forges resilient and inclusive communities of opportunity across America – great places to live, work, visit, do business and raise families. Since 1980, LISC has invested $17.3 billion to build or rehab 366,000 affordable homes and apartments and develop 61 million square feet of retail, community and educational space.