Nancy Foster Vice President, Quality and Patient Safety Policy American Hospital Association (AHA)
Nancy Foster is the Vice President for Quality and Patient Safety Policy at the American Hospital Association. In this role, she is the AHA’s point person for the Hospital Quality Alliance, which is a public-private effort to provide information to consumers on the quality of care in American hospitals. Nancy is the AHA’s representative to the National Quality Forum, is the AHA’s liaison to the Joint Commission’s Board, co-chairs AHRQ’s Patient Safety Coordination Center Advisory Committee, and represents hospital perspectives at many national meetings. She provides advice to hospitals and public policy makers on opportunities to improve patient safety and quality, including regulatory standards. Prior to joining the AHA, Nancy was the Coordinator for Quality Activities at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). In this role, she was the principal staff person for the Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force, which brought Federal agencies with health care responsibilities together to jointly engage in projects to improve quality and safety. She also led the development of patient safety research agenda for AHRQ and managed a portfolio of quality and safety research grants in excess of $10 million. She is a graduate of Princeton University and has completed graduate work at Chapman University and Johns Hopkins University. In 2000, she was chosen as an Excellence in Government Leadership Fellow.