WASHINGTON (October 17, 2022) — Today the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University announced that Feygele Jacobs would take over as Director of the Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health, an academic center for research, scholarship, education and training focused on community health centers and the underserved populations and communities they serve. Established in 2004, the Geiger Gibson Program is named after Drs. H. Jack Geiger and Count Gibson, pioneers in health, human rights, and health justice. Jacobs will also serve as Professor of Health Policy and Management at GW.
“We are thrilled that Feygele Jacobs will serve as Director of the Geiger Gibson Program,” Lynn R. Goldman, Dean of the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health, said. “Her vision, leadership and expertise will help guide and advance the program’s signature research and academic initiatives for years to come.”
Jacobs, formerly the President and CEO of the RCHN Community Health Foundation, collaborated closely in establishing and developing Geiger Gibson Program. Activities of the Program include its extensive research portfolio through the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative, special programs for emerging, mid-career, and senior health center and primary care association leaders and, most recently, CHroniCles, a special initiative that enables health centers to document and archive their history and offers users an online immersion into health centers and their communities.
“I cannot think of a more gifted and wonderful person to lead the Geiger Gibson Program,” added Sara Rosenbaum, the Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy at the Milken Institute SPH, who enters emerita status at the end of 2022. As founding Chair of the School’s Department of Health Policy, Professor Rosenbaum established the Geiger Gibson Program as a signature activity of the Department. The program has now grown into a unique presence among academic endeavors, combining excellence in education and scholarship with a commitment to advancing health justice through a special “amicus” project that brings the voice of public health and health policy expertise into judicial and regulatory policymaking.
Before becoming President of the RCHN Community Health Foundation, Jacobs had a long and celebrated career in administration of health care programs and services for medically underserved populations, first as a hospital executive and later as a senior executive overseeing one of the nation’s first and most successful health center-led Medicaid managed care plans. She is known for her expertise in health center policy and practice and as Foundation president, played a major role in helping health centers conceive and carry out projects aimed at addressing social risk and advancing health care equity.
The Geiger Gibson Program conducts groundbreaking research on community health centers and plays a critical role in training the next generation of leaders in the field, Anne Markus, Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, said. “Feygele Jacobs will be an exemplary role model for our students and instrumental in leading and defining the program’s next chapter,” Markus added. “We are extraordinarily lucky to have her at the helm of the Geiger Gibson Program.”
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