Service, Resilience and South American Adventures: A Leadership Journey

Rebecca Fox - President & Chief Executive Officer

Northwest Kidney Centers

Rebecca is the current CEO of Northwest Kidney Centers - a role she took in March of 2020 just as the organization was responding to the loss of two of its patients who were the first two deaths from COVID-19 in our country.  She has been at the forefront of managing this pandemic since and this latest chapter marks another milestone in an unusual career that spans multiple industries, countries and positions.  Her leadership and life reflect diverse and powerful experiences that begin in a small-town in Illinois and an opportunity with the local Rotary Club that changed her life. Rebecca will share her thoughts on leadership in her field, the future of the health care industry, and how we can begin to fix the fundamental flaws in healthcare.

About the Speaker

In January 2020, Rebecca Cofinas Fox, a health care entrepreneur, executive and advisor, was named President and Chief Executive Officer of Northwest Kidney Centers. The Seattle-based nonprofit is the eighth-largest provider of life-sustaining kidney dialysis in the United States. It operates 19 clinics, provides treatment in local hospitals and oversees patients who give themselves dialysis treatments at home. Education and research are also integral to its mission.

Cofinas Fox began her career in health care administration in the Cook County Health Care System in Chicago. She moved to San Diego in 2001 to join Scripps Health, a $2.5 billion Fortune 500 company that operates four hospitals with 15,000 employees and 3,000 affiliated physicians. She held several leadership positions there, including corporate vice president for clinical services.

More recently she built AristaMD, a health care startup, with the goal to be the market leader for e-consults. She raised more than $12 million in venture capital and built a product to replace routine in-office specialty care visits.

Cofinas Fox received a master’s degree in public health with high honors from Roosevelt University in Chicago, and a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana. She is a current fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and a fellow through the Advisory Board.

“I’ve found Rebecca to be extremely insightful and an excellent communicator,” said Rich Bloch, chair of Northwest Kidney Centers board of trustees. “As well, Rebecca’s capacity to learn is preceded only by her deeply analytical questioning. In these times of great change within the kidney care industry, I’m grateful to have Rebecca on our team and am excited to work with her.”

Cofinas Fox will start work at Northwest Kidney Centers March 23. She becomes the fourth CEO in the organization’s history, succeeding Joyce F. Jackson, who served in the role for 21 years.

Northwest Kidney Centers ranks at the top of the industry in Medicare quality ratings for its services, earning 4.46 out of 5 stars. Founded in Seattle in 1962, Northwest Kidney Centers was the first dialysis organization in the world. Today it cares for 1,800 people with chronic kidney failure, providing 283,000 treatments each year. For more information, visit https://www.nwkidney.org.