Announcing Transition of Marci Nielsen, CEO & President of PCPCC

Announcing Transition of Marci Nielsen, CEO & President of PCPCC

December 9, 2016

Marci Nielsen, PhD, MPH, President and CEO of Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC), has announced that she will be stepping down from her post on December 31, 2016. During her five-year tenure as the CEO of PCPCC, Marci was a tireless champion for primary care, working with health professionals and stakeholders across the country to promote the value of patient centered primary care and the medical home model as foundational to achieving the triple aim of better care, better health, and lower cost within the U.S. health system. The Board of Directors of PCPCC and the entire organization expresses their gratitude to Marci for her passionate advocacy and unwavering commitment to person-centered primary care.

Marci demonstrated her leadership from the beginning of her tenure through her decision to increase PCPCC’s focus on gathering and presenting evidence for the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) and demonstrating its value to the marketplace. Her corresponding work authoring the PCPCC Annual Evidence Report (and Innovations Map) has become a well-regarded, credible resource describing for policymakers the impressive outcomes associated with the PCMH.

In addition, she believed that PCPCC needed to expand the voice of patients, families, and consumers in order to amplify the “patient-centeredness” of PCPCC’s work. Under her leadership, patients and families were included in conferences, publications, and advocacy efforts; the number of PCPCC patient and consumer organizations among the executive membership and Board increased; and patient and family engagement in quality improvement became a major priority. Marci also encouraged further evolution of the medical home model, based on the evidence. Her leadership role in championing changes to the PCMH recognition process to reduce administrative burden and clinician burn-out, acknowledge the importance of community connections and the role of social determinants of health, and promote person-centered, team based primary care are a credit to her legacy.

The Board supports Marci’s decision to focus on her health and family, and we are proud that her (and our) commitment to primary care is stronger than ever. While the Board will embark on an immediate search for a permanent CEO/President, we are excited to announce that Rosemarie (Rosi) Sweeney of Bethesda, MD, will serve as interim CEO. Rosi brings many years of policy, advocacy, and association management experience to PCPCC.  For 5 years, she was the government relations representative at the American Osteopathic Association and for 20 years, she served as Vice President for Policy, Advocacy, and Practice Advancement at the American Academy of Family Physicians. In this latter role, she was instrumental in the formation of PCPCC in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, American Osteopathic Association, and IBM.