Board of Directors Biography - Karen Wolk Feinstein , Ph.D.

Karen Wolk Feinstein is the President of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) of Pittsburgh, a regional foundation funding a broad range of activities to advance the health of the residents of Western Pennsylvania. In 1997 Dr. Feinstein became the founding co-chair of the Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative (PRHI), an initiative that aspires to make the region a leader in healthcare system performance.

PRHI's unparalleled learning and improvement network includes hundreds of clinicians, 42 hospitals, four major insurers, dozens of healthcare purchasers, dozens of corporate and civic leaders, and Pennsylvania's attorney general. PRHI supports local providers in several activities designed to achieve performance excellence leading to perfect patient care. As a result of PRHI’s early efforts, Southwestern Pennsylvania is the only region in the country where competing hospitals now share data on medication errors, hospital-acquired infections and six other clinical conditions and have formed a partnership for shared learning and process improvement.

Current board memberships

• Chair, Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative
• Allegheny Conference on Community Development (and Executive Committee)
• Presbyterian University Hospital and Shadyside Hospital Joint Board
• United Way of Allegheny County
• United Jewish Federation
• Jewish Association on Aging
• Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy
• Western Pennsylvania Women’s Forum
• Chair, Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness
• Member, Advisory Board, Brandeis University Institute for Health Policy
• Chair, Health Careers Futures
• Advisory Board, University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development
• Pittsburgh Opera Advisory Board

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree, Brown University
• Master’s Degree, Boston College
• Ph.D., Brandeis University

Former affiliations

• Co-chair, Transition Team for health, for Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell
• Senior Vice President, United Way of Allegheny County, directing Resource Management and Community Initiatives Department
• Adjunct Professor of Public Policy and Social Planning, School of Urban and Public Affairs, Carnegie Mellon University
• Technical Board of Milbank Memorial Fund
• Associate Professor of Social Planning, Boston College
• Past Chair, Grantmakers in Health
• Editor, The Urban and Social Change Review

Awards

• 1997 Honorary Degree from Chatham College, Doctor of Public Service
• 1997 Carlow College Woman of Spirit Award
• 1996 Vocational Rehabilitation Center Mulach Award
• 1989 YWCA Tribute to Women Award