Rachel Garfield, M.H.S., Ph.D. (Courtesy photo)

Lewis First, M.D., M.S., professor and chair of pediatrics, has announced the appointment of Rachel Garfield, M.H.S., Ph.D., as the next executive director of the Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (VCHIP) and an associate professor pediatrics at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine.

Garfield, who will officially join UVM in early 2022, replaces Judith Shaw, Ed.D., M.P.H., R.N., who retired in July 2021 after serving as executive director of VCHIP since its founding in 1999. Keith Robinson, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, has served as interim executive director of VCHIP since Shaw’s retirement and will remain in his interim role overseeing VCHIP operations until Garfield starts in 2022.

Currently a vice president at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and co-director for its Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Garfield has 20 years of experience in Medicaid policy research and is an expert in data analysis on insurance coverage and access to care for the low-income population. She also has conducted work in public financing for behavioral health services for low-income populations. Prior to joining KFF, Garfield was an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. She has also held positions as a policy analyst in state and federal Medicaid/CHIP policy and research consultant for hospital operations and management. Garfield holds a B.A. degree from Harvard College, a Master of Health Science degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and received her Ph.D. in health policy from Harvard University.