Cheryl A. Maurana, Ph.D. Appointed Vice President for Strategic Outreach

Cheryl A. Maurana, Ph.D., has been promoted to Vice President for Strategic Outreach at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Maurana will relinquish her position as Senior Associate Dean for Institutional and Community Engagement in the medical school, but will retain the title of Director of Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin at the Medical College.
John R. Raymond, Sr., M.D., President and CEO of the Medical College, made the announcement after the Board of Trustees confirmed the appointment.

“I recommended this change to our board to reflect Dr. Maurana’s increasing roles and responsibilities in representing the Medical College in collaborations with other academic institutions, health care entities, and community organizations. Through her stewardship of the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin (AHW) Endowment and experience as founding director of our Institute for Health and Society, she already has played key roles in shaping our relationships with partners and collaborators here in Milwaukee, in Wisconsin and throughout the region”, said Dr. Raymond.

Dr. Maurana joined the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1995 and has been working to improve health and to advance health equity in a variety of leadership positions. She led the statewide Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program through a major planning and reorganization process in 1995, and then founded the Medical College’s Center for Healthy Communities in 1997. In 2007, Dr. Maurana launched the Medical College’s first Public and Community Health doctoral program with a focus on community-based participatory research curriculum, the first of its kind nationally.

In 2010, she served as the founding director for Institute for Health and Society. The mission of the Institute is to improve health and advance health equity through community and academic partnerships. Institute divisions include bioethics and medical humanities, biostatistics, community engagement, global health, graduate degree programs in public health, bioethics and biostatistics, health equity and urban clinical care partnerships, and population health research.

A nationally recognized academic leader in public health and community-academic partnerships, Dr. Maurana has built collaborations both within the College and with communities for improving health in the Milwaukee area and the state of Wisconsin. She is director of Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin, a statewide initiative created through the transformation of Blue Cross and Blue Shield United of Wisconsin into a publicly-traded firm. The Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin endowment funds community-academic partnerships, research, and education. Dr. Maurana serves as one of the nine board members of the Medical College’s Consortium on Public and Community Health, the public body mandated by the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance to oversee the endowment.

“Dr. Cheryl Maurana is an exceptionally talented leader whose efforts as the Vice President for Strategic Outreach are certain to improve the health of Wisconsin residents. Her appointment represents yet another positive step in the direction of enhanced community outreach and engagement to promote health equity by the Medical College of Wisconsin,” said Judy Kersten, president of the Medical College’s Faculty Council, and professor of anesthesiology, pharmacology & toxicology.

Dr. Maurana’s work has also focused on collaboration and translational research. She is the co-principal investigator on the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA).

As the Medical College assesses a potential expansion through creation of a community-based medical education program, Dr. Maurana has represented the institution in exploratory discussions with health care entities and educational institutions throughout Wisconsin.

A graduate of Seton Hill College in Greensburg, PA, she subsequently earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Health Service Research, Sociology from Purdue University. Dr. Maurana has been the principal or co-investigator on more than 40 grants in health services research, community health, and science, society and policy, and has served on the Community-Based Participatory Research Study Section of the National Institutes of Health. She has published extensively in the area of community-academic partnerships and has presented her research at numerous peer-reviewed national meetings. She has served on numerous national and local Boards, national advisory groups, and editorial boards. She has received numerous awards for her work and service, including the Distinguished Alumnae Award from Seton Hill College in 2007, the Milwaukee Business Journal’s Women of Influence Award in 2008, and the Servant-Leadership Award from SET Ministries in 2010.

Dr. Maurana’s new position is effective immediately.