Church Pension Group | Social Determinants of Health


Replay the May 25, 2023 event (viewing time 58:12)

Turning the Tide on Health Disparities:
A Discussion on Social Determinants of Health

The United States healthcare system spends a disproportionate amount of money on clinical care, often neglecting the social determinants of health - underlying factors that contribute to an individual’s health and wellbeing. Unfortunately, many poor, underserved communities suffer from weaker social determinants of health, which directly correlates with inferior health outcomes.

We invite you to join us for the next conversation in our Insights & Ideas series where you will hear from industry leaders who have developed strategies that make grants or investments directly addressing the social determinants of health and improving health outcomes for the poor.

Opening Prayer

The Rev. Clayton Crawley
Chief Church Relations Officer
Church Pension Group

Welcoming Remarks

Mary Kate Wold (moderator)
CEO and President
Church Pension Group

Panel Conversation

Dr. Ann Barnes
CEO
The Episcopal Health Foundation

Dr. Len Fromer
President, Healthcare Initiatives
Turner Impact Capital

Christopher Rowe, CFA®
Managing Director, Investments
Church Pension Group

Audience Q&A

Learn more about CPG’s approach to socially responsible investing.

Opening Prayer

The Rev. Clayton Crawley
Chief Church Relations Officer
Church Pension Group

The Reverend Clayton Crawley is Executive Vice President and Chief Church Relations Officer of CPG. He is responsible for strengthening CPG’s ties with the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, the General Convention, and other groups and stakeholders around The Episcopal Church. He joined CPG in 1999.

Previously, Fr. Crawley led CPG’s technology program and served as Chief Information Officer. Prior to this, he was the Associate Rector of All Saints Episcopal Church, Palo Alto, California. He has more than 25 years of ordained ministry experience and currently serves as a non-stipendiary priest at St. Bartholomew’s Parish and Trinity Church Wall Street in New York City. 

He holds an MDiv from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

Welcoming Remarks and Moderator

Mary Kate Wold
Chief Executive Officer and President
Church Pension Group

Mary Kate Wold serves as Chief Executive Officer and President of the Church Pension Group (CPG), a $17 billion financial services enterprise that provides retirement, health, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, and other products and services to The Episcopal Church. She also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of The Church Pension Fund, CPG’s governing body.

She has served in a variety of leadership positions in the corporate, legal, and government sectors. Prior to joining CPG, she was a senior finance executive and principal corporate officer of Wyeth, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Before embarking on her corporate career, she was a partner and chaired the tax practice group of Shearman & Sterling, a leading global law firm. Earlier in her career, she served in the Office of Tax Policy of the United States Department of the Treasury.

Her board participation has included both not-for-profit and for-profit organizations. She sits on the board of the Church Benefits Association, a national association of faith-based benefits organizations, and on the steering committee of the Church Alliance, a benefits policy and advocacy group. From 2016 until 2023 she served on the vestry of Trinity Church Wall Street in New York City and on its investment committee, which oversees the institution’s multi-billion-dollar real estate and securities portfolio. She also sits on the boards of Nucleus RadioPharma, The Jackson Laboratory, and Burke Neurological Institute. Her professional affiliations include membership in the Women’s Forum of New York and Women Corporate Directors.

Mary Kate spent her childhood in Bottineau, North Dakota, a small rural community on the Canadian border. She graduated from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, summa cum laude with a BA in English and Theater and was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She later graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. She holds an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University.

Panelists

Ann Barnes, PhD
President and Chief Executive Officer
Episcopal Health Foundation

Dr. Ann Barnes is a native of Houston, Texas. She is currently the President and CEO of the Episcopal Health Foundation. The Foundation serves the 80 counties of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas and is committed to the promotion of health equity. Through grants, research, and congregational and community engagement investments, the Foundation strives to advance the vision that all community members should have a just and fair opportunity to be as healthy as possible, especially those who are underserved. The investments prioritize upstream, non-medical drivers of health, not just health care. Dr. Barnes is an associate professor of medicine and voluntary clinical faculty at Baylor College of Medicine. She also holds an adjunct faculty position at the University of Houston College of Medicine and is a board-certified internist.    

Her prior roles included executive positions in large safety-net healthcare systems. She was Chief Health Officer and Chief Medical Executive at Harris Health System, the largest safety-net healthcare system in the greater Houston area. She served as the Chief Medical Officer at Legacy Community Health, a large federally-qualified health center system in Texas. In each of these roles, she brought focus to the importance of disease prevention, population health, and health outside of the walls of the clinic. In addition, Dr. Barnes served as principal investigator of a National Institutes of Health research project that sought to understand factors that promote successful weight loss maintenance in African Americans.

Dr. Barnes received a BS from Yale University and an MD from Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and also earned a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Texas.

Beyond her work in medicine, education, public health, and research, Dr. Barnes is active in her community. She is a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum Houston/Gulf Coast Chapter and serves on several non-profit boards (Good Reason Houston, Houston Endowment, Texas 2036, and the Kinder Institute). She is married to Matthew Barnes and has three children.


Dr. Len Fromer
President, Healthcare Initiatives
Turner Impact Capital

Len Fromer, M.D., FAAFP, is the President of Healthcare Initiatives at Turner Impact Capital. He is a nationally recognized expert in the areas of primary care practice redesign and transformation, quality improvement and outcomes measurement, vaccine compliance quality improvement and health system reform, and he served on the American Medical Association’s Commission on Healthcare Disparities. He was a practicing physician for over 28 years and previously served as the Executive Medical Director of the Group Practice Forum, where he led nationwide projects to coordinate care across a continuum of services including preventative, outpatient, inpatient acute hospital care, post-acute care, and palliative care. Dr. Fromer has lectured extensively on the topics of health system reform, the patient centered medical home, and the accountable care organization model. He has been featured on CBS News, ABC News, and in the New York Times.

He has served on boards and advisory committees for, among others, the American Medical Association, US Department of Health and Human Services, World Foundation for Studies of Female Health, American Academy of Family Physicians, California Academy of Family Physicians, and the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences. 

Dr. Fromer received a BA from the State University of New York, an MD from The State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, and completed his residency in Family Medicine at UC Irvine/Long Beach Memorial Hospital.


Christopher Rowe, CFA
Managing Director, Investments
Church Pension Group


Christopher Rowe is a Managing Director of CPG. He is responsible for leading CPG’s socially responsible investment engagement strategy and outreach initiatives. He works to build relationships with companies in which CPG invests, peer organizations, The Episcopal Church, and other stakeholders with similar values. Additionally, he works on behalf of the Chief Investment Officer to oversee various aspects of administration for the Investments Department, including communications and compliance.

Prior to CPG, Christopher was Chief of Staff to the CEO of PGIM, Prudential Financial’s asset management business, where he was responsible for wide-ranging activities including business administration, external relations, and sustainability. Earlier in his career, he worked directly with institutions and faith-based investors on strategies for integrating values with investments.

He received a BA in Economics from Haverford College and an MBA in Finance from New York University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst.