David Nash, MD MBA | Dean/Board of Directors
Jefferson College of Population Health

David B. Nash was named the Founding Dean of the Jefferson College of Population Health (JCPH) in 2008. This appointment caps a 25-year tenure on the faculty of Thomas Jefferson University.  He is also the Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor of Health Policy.  JCPH provides innovative educational programming designed to develop healthcare leaders for the future.  The College offers Masters Programs in Public Health, Healthcare Quality and Safety, Health Policy, Applied Health Economics and Population Health.  JCPH also offers a doctoral program in Population Health Sciences.

Dr. Nash is a board-certified internist who is internationally recognized for his work in public accountability for outcomes, physician leadership development, and quality-of-care improvement.  

Repeatedly named to Modern Healthcare’s list of Most Powerful Persons in Healthcare, his national activities cover a wide scope.  Dr. Nash is a principal faculty member for quality of care programming for the American Association for Physician Leadership in Tampa, FL and leads their academic joint venture with JCPH.  He serves on the NQF Task Force on Improving Population Health and the John M. Eisenberg Award Committee for The Joint Commission.  He also is a founding member of the AAMC-IQ Steering Committee, the group charged with infusing the tenets of quality and safety into medical education.  Dr. Nash was recently appointed to the Board of the Pharmaceutical Quality Alliance (PQA) in Washington, DC.   

Dr. Nash has governance responsibilities for organizations in the public and private sectors.  He has chaired the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) of the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (HC4) for 18 years and he is widely recognized as a pioneer in the public reporting of outcomes.  In the not-for-profit sector, Dr. Nash served on the Board of Trustees of Catholic Healthcare Partners (now Mercy Partners), in Cincinnati, OH (1998–2008), where he was the inaugural chair of the board committee on Quality and Safety.  He just concluded his tenure (2009-2017) on the board of Main Line Health, a four-hospital system in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he also chaired the board committee on Quality and Safety.  He now serves on the board of the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.  In the for-profit sector, Dr. Nash was named to the Board of Directors for Humana, Inc., one of the nation’s largest publically traded healthcare companies, in 2009.  In October 2013 he joined the board of Vestex, a privately held advanced medical textile company in Orlando, FL. In 2014 he joined the board of InfoMC, a leading information technology company in suburban Philadelphia.  He is on the health care advisory board for Arsenal Capital Partners in NYC.  

Dr. Nash has received many awards in recognition of his achievements.  He received the top recognition award from the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (1995), the Philadelphia Business Journal Healthcare Heroes Award (1997), and was named an honorary distinguished fellow of the American College of Physician Executives in 1998.  In 2006 he received the Elliot Stone Award for leadership in public accountability for health data from NAHDO.  Wharton honored Dr. Nash in 2009 with the Wharton Healthcare Alumni Achievement Award and in 2012 with the Joseph Wharton Social Impact Award. Also in 2012, he and JCPH received the Philadelphia Business Journal award for innovation in medical education.  

Dr. Nash’s work is well known through his many publications, public appearances, “Nash on the Road” blog, and online column on MedPage Today.  He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and edited 23 books, including Connecting with the New Healthcare Consumer, The Quality Solution, Demand Better, and most recently Population Health: Creating a Culture of Wellness (2nd edition).  He was the inaugural Deputy Editor of Annals of Internal Medicine (1984-1989).  Currently, he is Editor-in-Chief of American Journal of Medical Quality, Population Health Management, P&T, and American Health and Drug Benefits. 

Dr. Nash received his BA in economics (Phi Beta Kappa) from Vassar College; his MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and his MBA in Health Administration (with honors) from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.  While at Penn, he was a former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar and Medical Director of a nine-physician faculty group practice in general internal medicine.

Dr. Nash lives in Ardmore, PA, with his wife of more than 37 years, Esther J. Nash, MD.  They have 3 adult children.  He enjoys tennis, jogging, and biking.

Please visit:  http://Jefferson.edu/population_health/ and his blog at http://blogs.jefferson.edu/nashhealthpolicy/