On Wednesday, the California Wellness Foundation announced it had named Kaiser Permanente executive Dr. Diana Bontá as President and CEO.
Why am I telling you this?
Because the Wellness Foundation is unique in California in that, for 19 years, it has funded—to the tune of $125 million— such projects as gang violence reduction programs, juvenile reentry strategies, and a long list of other juvenile justice issues when few others wanted to take a chance on the kind of at-risk populations that these essential programs served. In short, they have demonstrated their deep commitment to the problems and challenges that we crazy juvenile justice fanatics care about and, as a consequence, lives have been saved, futures altered for the better.
Thus when Wellness’s outgoing president, Gary Yates—always a champion of the foundation’s violence reduction initiatives— announced he was leaving, there was much discussion about whether the new Prez—whomever he or she was—would support the same kind of programs.
Word is that with Dr. Bontá, Wellness has found a winner, who, in addition to her executive experience, is a skilled and passionate advocate for the health and well being of the state’s underserved and marginalized communities and residents.
So, welcome to Dr. B!