David Nash

David B. Nash, MD, MBA, is a healthcare leader with an unparalleled record of advancing population health and driving organizational success. Following a distinguished 35-year career at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, he now serves as Principal of David B. Nash, MD, MBA, LLC. Drawing on decades of leadership in academic medicine, governance, health policy, quality improvement, and business strategy, Dr. Nash advises healthcare organizations, boards, investors, and companies seeking experienced strategic guidance.

Dr. Nash was the Founding Dean of the Jefferson College of Population Health—the first college of its kind in the nation—and served as the Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor of Health Policy. A board-certified internist, he is internationally recognized for his work in public accountability for outcomes, physician leadership development, and quality improvement.

He brings extensive governance experience across the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. Dr. Nash served as a hospital trustee for 20 years, including on the Board of Trustees of Catholic Healthcare Partners (now Mercy Health) in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1998 to 2008, where he was the inaugural chair of the Quality and Safety Committee. He later served on the board of Main Line Health, a four-hospital system in suburban Philadelphia, from 2009 to 2017, and also chaired its Quality and Safety Committee. He currently serves on the board of the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.

In the for-profit sector, Dr. Nash completed nearly a decade as a member of the Board of Directors of Humana Inc., one of the nation’s largest publicly traded healthcare companies. For a dozen years, he has been an advisor to Arsenal Capital Partners in New York City and recently completed his tenure on the board of MaxHealth, an Arsenal portfolio company. He is also a board member of FOX Rehabilitation, a portfolio company of Blue Wolf Capital. In addition, he advises more than a dozen companies across the healthcare industry, bringing practical expertise in strategy, governance, quality, population health, value-based care, and health system transformation.

Dr. Nash’s work is widely recognized through his publications, speaking engagements, and 17-year tenure as a columnist for MedPage Today. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and edited 25 books, including The Healthcare Quality Book, Demand Better, and his most recent best-selling title, How Covid Crashed the System: A Guide to Fixing American Healthcare.

He earned a BA in Economics, Phi Beta Kappa, from Vassar College; an MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry; and an MBA in Health Administration, with honors, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. While at Penn, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar and Medical Director of a nine-physician faculty group practice in general internal medicine. Dr. Nash has delivered numerous endowed and named lectures throughout the United States and internationally.

Dr. Nash lives in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, with his wife of 45 years, Esther J. Nash, MD. They have three adult children and three grandchildren. He enjoys tennis, swimming, and biking. Together, they have endowed an annual healthcare quality and safety prize for learners across Jefferson. Established in 2021, the award was the first of its kind in the nation.