Elisa Friedman, MS

Elisa Friedman, M.S. is Associate Vice President for Community Health & Health Equity in the Office of Health Equity at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In this role, she leads engagement with the community as well as efforts to integrate community health and health equity in to VUMC's work. A staunch advocate for community engagement and collaboration, she works alongside residents, stakeholders and coalitions to assess and address health needs and champions a collective, equity centered approach to addressing social drivers of health. 

Prior to joining VUMC, Elisa spent fourteen years working with community health centers and nonprofit hospitals in Boston. In this capacity, Elisa was responsible for planning and evaluating community-based programs and managing high-level relationships with community-based organizations, as well as academic, health system and community health center partners. Although the content areas have varied, the common theme in Elisa's work is a commitment to community engagement. Elisa also has led quality improvement initiatives focused on using race, ethnicity and language data and the Office of Minority Health National Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards.

Prior to her work in Boston, Elisa worked on global HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives. Fluent in Portuguese and Spanish, Elisa has worked in Mozambique, Angola, Brazil, El Salvador and Honduras. She received a B.A. from Vassar College and a M.S. in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health.