Five Leading Health Care Executives Named to Town Hall Ventures Advisory Board

Cohen, Jenkins, Laws, Pykosz, Stokes Bring Track Record of Innovation for Underserved Communities

May 11, 2023, New York, NY

— Town Hall Ventures has named 5 health care leaders to its Advisory Board. The Advisory Board will provide support, counsel, and outreach to Town Hall Ventures to fulfill its mission of innovation for underserved communities.

The Advisors include:

• Dr. Mandy Cohen, Executive Vice President of Aledade, former Health Secretary of North Carolina, and former Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). She brings more than 15 years of experience in health care across state and federal government, including pioneering innovation in whole person care
• Dr. Christina Jenkins, Advisor for Manatt Health and former founding CEO of OneCity Health Services, a subsidiary of NYC Health + Hospitals, the nation’s largest public hospital system. As both an operator and investor, she is a leading expert in health system redesign and growth strategy, and in the deployment of integrated, value-based care strategies
• Margaret Laws, President and CEO of Hopelab and former Director of the California Health Care Foundation Innovation Fund. Laws has dedicated her career to care innovation for teens, young adults, and underserved communities
• Mike Pykosz, Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Oak Street Health, a leader in value-based primary care with a track record of building clinics for lower-income and underserved populations
• Will Stokes, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Strive Health, one of the country’s pioneers in value-based specialty care with a principal focus on providing preventive and at-home care to patients with kidney disease

“This exceptional group of leaders is second to none when it comes to innovating to transform care for underserved communities,” said Dr. Meera Mani, Partner at Town Hall Ventures. “They have served as entrepreneurs, in government and in the private sector, and as mentors and coaches. Collectively they have been at the helm of numerous positive changes in health care recently. They will serve as great guides as we execute on Town Hall Ventures’ mission.” Town Hall’s Venture Advisory Board will support Town Hall’s mission of transforming care for underserved communities. They will identify and partner with entrepreneurs dedicated to advancing health equity, and contribute their deep operating experience to support Town Hall’s portfolio companies.

“Town Hall Ventures’ demonstrated focus on increasing access to care to advance health equity is what drew me to the Advisory Board,” said Mike Pykosz. “The platform is unique and I’m excited to be a part of it and help THV’s portfolio companies make an impact on the patients who need it most.”

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with the Town Hall team and their portfolio companies,” said Dr. Christina Jenkins. “I’ve dedicated my career to health system redesign for underserved communities, and I’m eager to work hand in hand with Town Hall to accelerate much-needed innovation.”

Advisory Board Members

Dr. Mandy Cohen is CEO of Aledade Care Solutions and EVP of Aledade, a leading physician enablement company helping providers thrive in value-based care. Prior to Aledade, Dr. Cohen served as the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS), where she led the launch of managed Medicaid, the Healthy Opportunities pilot to provide Medicaid enrollees with housing, food and transportation services, and the COVID response for the state. Prior to NCDHHS, Dr. Cohen held senior roles at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and trained in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Christina Jenkins is a Board Member, Investor, or Advisor to a number of venture-backed companies, as well as Independence Health Group, Manatt Health, and Help at Home. Previously, Dr. Jenkins was the founding President and CEO of OneCity Health, a subsidiary of NYC Health + Hospitals. At OneCity, she led a $1.2B effort to transform care for 1M New Yorkers, implementing integrated care models and tech services to enable value-based payments for the 200-organization partnership.

Margaret Laws is President and CEO of Hopelab where she leads a multidisciplinary team combining behavioral science, user-centered design and partnership with innovators to create technology products to help improve health and well-being for teens and young adults. Prior to Hopelab, Margaret spent 17 years at the California Health Care Foundation in a number of roles, including Director of Public Financing and Policy and Director of the Innovations for the Underserved program. She founded the CHCF Health Innovation Fund, a mission-focused fund investing in health care technology and service companies that improve access to and lower costs of health care.

Mike Pykosz is the Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder of Oak Street Health, a network of primary care centers that delivers value-based care to adults on Medicare. Under Mike’s leadership, Oak Street Health is rebuilding health care as it should be. His strategic guidance has enabled the organization’s growth to more than 160 centers across 21 states since its founding in 2012. Mike was recognized as one of Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” in 2022 for the third consecutive year, and one of Business Insider’s “100 People Transforming Business” in 2020. Prior to founding Oak Street Health, Mike served as a core member of the Payers and Providers practice at BCG, where he led projects focused on caring for the Medicare population and their unique health care needs.

Will Stokes is the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of Strive Health, a value-based kidney care solution for payors and providers. Will also serves as President of Strive Care Partners, Strive’s dedicated platform for partnering with nephrologists in value-based care. Will has spent his career focused on the launch and growth of transformational health care businesses. Prior to Strive, Will was a Director at Oxeon Ventures, where he helped co-found Empiric Health, an AI-powered clinical analytics company to improve surgical outcomes, which sold to Olive Health in 2021.

About Town Hall Ventures

Founded by Andy Slavitt, David Whelan, and Trevor Price in 2018, and joined by Dr. Meera Mani in 2022, Town Hall Ventures has invested or participated in the build of 30 companies that improve how care is provided to underserved and underrepresented communities. Select portfolio companies include Cityblock Health, Curana Health, Eleanor Health, Equality Health, Landmark Health, Signify Health, Strive Health, Quilted Health, Unite Us and VillageMD. Learn more at www.townhallventures.com.