Health Related Social Needs Screening & Response at Stanford Health Care.
September 9th, 2025
Nazleen H. Bharmal, MD, PhD, MBA
Nazleen H. Bharmal has been the inaugural Chief Health Equity Officer at Stanford Health Care since September 2024. Her prior roles were at Cleveland Clinic, where she was the Associate Chief of Community Health and Partnership, and on the Value-Based Operations leadership team, where she worked with an interdisciplinary team to implement a community health strategy focused on health equity, social drivers of health, and partnerships with community stakeholders in Northeast Ohio. Dr. Bharmal practices primary care internal medicine focused on disease prevention and health promotion. Dr. Bharmal has also served as the Director of Science and Policy at the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as a clinician-investigator at the RAND Corporation and UCLA Department of Medicine, Division of Health Services and General Internal Medicine with a research focus on health disparities, chronic disease prevention, and social determinants of health using quantitative, qualitative, and community-based participatory research methods.
Kate Britton MPH
Kate Britton has over 15 years of diverse health care experience spanning from Accountable Care, Global Health, and Consulting for Life Sciences. At Stanford Health Care, she is the Manager of Accountable Care and Population Health Transformation. Previously, Kate managed the Population Health Department of a Critical Access Hospital and Rural Health Clinic; she led the hospital’s Medicare Shared Savings Program and a managed care direct payment program for Medi-Cal. Prior to Kate’s domestic health policy work, she led teams globally in collaboration with Ministries of Health in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, on systems strengthening, universal health coverage, and health finance. Kate received her Bachelor of International Politics from George Washington University, and Master of Public Health and Master of International Affairs from Columbia University.
Erica Higman MSW, LCSW, CSSBB
Erica Higman has ten years of diverse experience in large academic medical centers. At Stanford Health Care, she is a Senior Quality Consultant for Accountable Care and Population Health Transformation. Prior to joining Stanford, Erica was responsible for the Quality Assurance & Performance Improvement Programs for cardiothoracic transplant at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Her role spanned patient safety, regulatory compliance and risk, quality improvement and analytics. Erica began her career as a social worker at Penn Medicine and realized her inclination towards improvement work while leading various projects to broaden access to resources for solid organ transplant patients. She received her Master of Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a licensed clinical social worker and an American Society for Quality (ASQ) Certified Six Sigma Black Belt.
