HARTFORD, CT – The Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) is pleased to announce Garrick Wong as its new program officer. Mr. Wong joins the program team entrusted to ensure CT Health achieves its strategic goals via focused grant making, policy advocacy, capacity building and leadership development.
“Garrick comes to Connecticut from California and we know the local community will join CT Health in welcoming him,” said Patricia Baker, CT Health President and CEO. “Garrick has a background in health philanthropy and brings valuable health care access and community public health experience with him,” added Baker.
Previously, Garrick served as a community benefit specialist at El Camino Hospital in California where he guided the organization’s grants program to address health needs across four priority areas: healthcare access, mental health, healthy eating/physical activity and community health education. Prior to joining the hospital, Garrick was a program associate in the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s children, families, and communities program. In that role, he supported the children’s health insurance strategy which focuses on policy reforms and systems change to ensure that all children have health insurance coverage and access to quality care.
“My passion is improving the health and wellbeing of low-income and underserved communities,” says Wong. “I am fortunate to have a career that has allowed me to work on these health issues from the policy, systems, and practice levels. My role at CT Health is really an extension of what I consider to be my personal and professional mission. I am excited about the opportunity to advance the foundation’s goals and objectives and look forward to working collaboratively to build health equity solutions in Connecticut.”
Garrick received his M.P.A. from the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy, and his B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Davis.
About the Connecticut Health Foundation
The Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) is the state’s largest independent health philanthropy dedicated to improving lives by changing health systems.
Since it was established in 1999, the foundation has supported innovative grantmaking, public policy research, technical assistance and convening to achieve its mission – to improve the health of the people of Connecticut.Over the past 16 years, CT Health has awarded grants totaling over $58 million in 45 cities and towns throughout the state.
In 2013, CT Health announced a five-year strategic plan that made expanding health equity the foundation’s central focus. For CT Health, health equity means helping more people gain access to better care, especially people of color and underserved populations. Better care includes physical, mental and oral health.
For more information about the foundation, please visit www.cthealth.org or contact vice president of policy and communications, Elizabeth Krause, at elizabeth@cthealth.org or 860.724.1580, ext. 14.
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