Alumni/ae Spotlight

Lisa G. Kaplowitz, MD, MSHA

Lisa G. Kaplowitz, MD, MSHA, directs the Virginia Department of Health’s new program established to protect citizens from bioterrorism and all other public health emergencies at state, regional and local levels. “My goal is to optimize the rapid identification and response not only to bioterrorism events, but to all infectious disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies in Virginia,” states the Commonwealth’s first Deputy Commissioner for Emergency Preparedness and Response.

She assumed her present position in August 2002 and is responsible for $37 million in federal grant funds to develop and direct all aspects of the program. This includes the collaboration and coordination of public health, health care, emergency management and public safety professionals and all emergency response organizations for the 35 different health districts and 5 health regions of the Commonwealth.

Dr. Kaplowitz joined the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System in 1982, gaining recognition for her expertise in communicable diseases and HIV/AIDS as a Department of Medicine faculty member. During a distinctive 20-year career in academic medicine, her interest in increasing patient access to care grew steadily as she educated present and future healthcare professionals on topics related to general medicine, infectious disease and HIV/AIDS, provided clinical care, conducted clinical research, and shared her expertise with healthcare and public health sectors on the national, state and local levels.

From 1983-85, Dr. Kaplowitz worked with the Richmond Department of Public Health as Medical Director of the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Clinic. Since the mid-1980’s, her accomplishments include the development and implementation of the first state funded HIV testing site, HIV Clinic of the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, community based HIV clinics in the Richmond area, and AIDS training programs within Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic region. She continued her career of establishing new health care and public health programs as the first Director of the HIV/AIDS Center of Virginia Commonwealth University. As Medical Director of the Telemedicine Program from 1998 - 2002, she created a telemedicine program between the VCU School of Medicine and the Virginia Department of Corrections to expand medical services to inmates. Dr. Kaplowitz was Medical Director of the Department of Ambulatory Care for the VCU Health System before taking on her new role with the Virginia Department of Health.

She notes key influences that resulted in her shift from academic medicine to healthcare policy were her work with the AIDS Legislative Subcommittee of the Virginia General Assembly over a ten-year period and her experience as a Health Policy Fellow in the Office of Senator John D. Rockefeller IV and the Institute of Medicine in 1996 - 97. “I found healthcare finance extremely important because understanding reimbursement policies is crucial to implementing change in the healthcare field,” says Dr. Kaplowitz. “Patient access to care is closely linked to healthcare financing.” She augmented previous knowledge and added skills in healthcare management, finance, and patient care delivery by obtaining a MSHA from Virginia Commonwealth University in May 2002.

Dr. Lisa Kaplowitz’s selection to lead Virginia’s public health emergency response program exemplifies the variety of skills required to create future healthcare solutions and to effect change successfully within constantly changing paradigms. She comments, “My background as an MD gave me credibility in my present position, but my MSHA degree was instrumental in providing the skills necessary to successfully establish a completely new program.”