Colville to lead North Carolina Institute of Medicine

December 11, 2020

Dr. Kathy Colville

The North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) recently selected Kathy Colville, PhD, as president and chief executive officer (CEO). In this role she will lead the NCIOM’s work in advising state policymakers and executive agencies, developing robust partnerships, publishing state health policy research and convening diverse state stakeholders to identify actionable solutions to our state’s health policy and public health challenges.

“It is an honor to lead the NCIOM at such a crucial time for our state and country,” said Colville. “The NCIOM brings together people from all corners of North Carolina who care deeply about the health and well-being of our communities, who find common ground and identify the changes we need to make together. I look forward to helping leaders across North Carolina ask the crucial questions and make the tough calls we need to make in order to build strong systems that help us all thrive.”

She is an alumna of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, having received a Master of Science in Public Health from the School’s Department of Maternal and Child Health in 2005, the same year she received a Master of Social Work degree from UNC.

“I am deeply grateful for all that I learned from my time at UNC,” said Colville. “At the School of Public Health, I learned how to collect and analyze epidemiological data, how to situate individual experience in the context of structural supports and systemic barriers, and how to wrestle with the constant ethical questions and weighing of values that are at the heart of truly engaged public health work.”

As well as establishing this foundation in public health, she says her time at Gillings prepared her in surprising ways for this new challenge.

“I learned from leaders who dedicated themselves to the people of North Carolina and the world,” said Colville. “The first day of my practicum with Tom Vitaglione, a legendary child health advocate in our state, he took me with him to a meeting at the NCIOM about policy recommendations to prevent child abuse. I did not know then that I would one day be chosen to lead this influential and esteemed organization, but I know that Gillings prepared my mind and heart for this opportunity.”

Colville most recently led the Healthy Communities department at Cone Health, one of North Carolina’s largest health networks, in Greensboro. In her role as director, she led teams that improved access to health care for the most vulnerable members of the Guilford, Forsyth, Rockingham, Alamance, Randolph, Caswell and surrounding communities. A major goal of Healthy Communities under Colville was to improve social conditions that affect health, such as affordable healthy housing and access to nutritious food. Under Colville’s leadership, Cone Health became the first health system in North Carolina recognized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its Diabetes Prevention Program and the first in the state to implement NCCARE360, an electronic referral platform integrated with electronic medical records. In September 2020, Colville was named a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Leader; she will participate in this three-year environmental justice fellowship in addition to her new role at the NCIOM.

Colville previously worked in public health and hospital emergency preparedness, serving on the front lines during several major disasters, including Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009-2010.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from Brown University and master’s degrees in social work and public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005. She is a PhD candidate in public administration at North Carolina State University, where her research is focused on the policy process and the Medicaid program. She serves on the UNC Greensboro Public Health Education Advisory Board and serves as a board member for Impact Alamance, AuthoraCare Collective, Guilford Community Care Network, and the United Way of North Carolina.

Colville will take the helm from Michelle G. Ries, MPH, who has served as interim director of the Institute since August after the departure of long-time President and CEO Adam J. Zolotor, MD, DrPh. Ries will return to her previous position as Associate Director when Colville becomes President and CEO.

“A diverse, credentialed, and committed search committee worked for four months vetting all applicants for the position,” said Board Chair David Sousa. “There were many, and the interest level was a testament to the stature of the NCIOM and its work. In the end, the Committee was unanimous in its belief that Kathy was best suited to lead the vital work of the NCIOM. The full NCIOM Board was unanimous in its acceptance of the committee’s recommendation that Kathy join and lead the organization. The COVID-19 pandemic was instructive to us all in its illumination of (still) a large number of health disparities and inequities. That will be a part of Kathy’s focus. With time, we are confident that she will improve the overall health of our state’s residents.”

The North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) is an independent, quasi-state agency that was chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1983 to provide balanced, nonpartisan information on issues of relevance to the health of North Carolina’s population. For more information, visit www.nciom.org

Contact the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health communications team at sphcomm@unc.edu.