Terry Leach Related links: • Q&A with Terry Leach • Fact sheet

Terry Leach has worn many hats: registered nurse, health attorney and health policy consultant, instructor and manager.

Her diverse background has served her well the past seven months as interim executive director of the University of California's Center for Health Quality and Innovation (CHQI), which focuses on improving the delivery of care. Now she can take away the interim in her title. The CHQI board announced today (May 25) that it has named Leach as executive director for a three-year term beginning June 1.

"Terry has a passion for innovation, a breadth of experience and has shown the ability to bring people together across the UC Health system," said Dr. John Stobo, CHQI chairman and UC senior vice president for health sciences and services. "She is the right choice to lead the innovation center's efforts to improve health care for Californians."

The center's goal is to support innovations at the UC health campuses that can transform the way the health needs of Californians are addressed, improving quality, access and value in the delivery of care. Launched in October, the center received initial funding of $5 million — $1 million each from medical centers at UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego and UC San Francisco. The center, which also is seeking outside funding, issued its first request for proposals in March and expects to award its first round of grants by July.

"I'm honored to be appointed executive director of UC's Center for Health Quality and Innovation," said Leach, who has been health policy manager for the UC Office of the President since 2007. "UC clinicians, staff and researchers have many great ideas for delivering care that is better, safer and less costly. The center will work to foster collaborations that develop innovations to transform care for Californians and serve as a national model."

Leach has a law degree from UC Berkeley, master's degree in fine arts from Bennington College in Vermont and a bachelor's degree in nursing from California State University, Sacramento. She spent eight years working on health policy and has taught that subject at the University of Minnesota in the School of Public Health. As an attorney, she represented hospitals and medical staffs for several years, and has worked as a public health nurse in Spanish-speaking communities in the Central Valley, helping patients with chronic diseases learn how to care for themselves at home.

University of California Health runs California's fourth-largest health care delivery system and the nation's largest health sciences training program. UC Health includes five academic medical centers, 10 hospitals and 16 health professional schools. UC staffs five trauma centers, provides half of transplants and one-fourth of extensive burn care in the state, and cares for a significant segment of the state's indigent and publicly insured patients — 40 percent of UC patients are uninsured or covered by Medi-Cal.