Meet our expert teams

Northwestern Medicine is the shared strategic vision of Northwestern Memorial Health Care and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine to transform the future of health care. 

With the academic foundation of Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern Medicine is committed to transforming the way health care is delivered. 

Northwestern Medicine is a nonprofit, integrated academic health system that exists to make people better by making medicine better, providing world-class care to patients in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, as well as patients who travel from all 50 states and more than 100 countries.

The health system has more than 200 locations with 11 hospitals, three medical groups, more than 5,000 physicians and approximately 40,000 employees.

Feinberg School of Medicine is a research-intensive medical school that fosters powerful collaborations on a thriving academic medical campus. Departments within Feinberg School of Medicine that will be supporting the Northwestern Medicine West Health Accelerator include The Department of Medical Social Sciences and The Center for Dissemination & Implementation Science. 

Learn more at nm.org.

Gary and Mary West are entrepreneurs and philanthropists who have committed their wealth to improving aging and lowering the cost of health care in America.

In 2006, they established the Gary and Mary West Foundation, and the West Health Institute and the West Health Policy Center soon followed, collectively called West Health. 

West Health’s mission is to enable seniors to successfully age with access to high-quality, affordable health and support services that preserve and protect their dignity, quality of life and independence. West Health has funded more than $500 million in initiatives. 

West Health Institute 
The institute collaborates with large healthcare institutions and deploys its accelerators to enhance, study, scale and expedite best practices in health care and mental health nationwide. 

West Health Policy Center 
Based in Washington, D.C., the center was established to inform better public policy through research, analysis, education and outreach. 

West Health Foundation 
The foundation is one of only a handful of private healthcare nonprofit foundations in the U.S. solely focused on addressing the needs of vulnerable seniors. Through its grantmaking, it strategically deploys funding to fuel groundbreaking research, models of care, and resources that improve care for seniors, their families, and all Americans. 

Learn more at westhealth.org.

Independent and nonpartisan, the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute works at the intersection of policy and programs to create equitable systemic changes so all people in Texas, the nation and the world can obtain the health care they need.

The Meadows Institute grew out of The Meadows Foundation’s unyielding concern for the people of Texas. In 2014, The Meadows Foundation established the Institute as an independent nonprofit organization. With offices in Austin, Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio, and projects in every region of the state, the Meadows Institute has become Texas’s most trusted source for results-oriented information and analysis of effective and efficient mental health policy and programs.

The Meadows Institute works at the national, state, regional, and local levels to help mental health systems improve, share best practices, develop resources, and increase public awareness on the most effective ways to treat mental illness and help people recover. 

The Meadows Institute provides state and national leaders with data-driven, trusted policy and program guidance. It works to shift the focus of investments toward early interventions for children and families and address the mental health crisis in our jails and emergency rooms. By advancing improvements in critical areas such as trauma and grief and the expansion of the mental health workforce, the Meadows Institute is leading the effort to help all people with a mental health need recover and be well.

Learn more at mmhpi.org.

The Northwestern Medicine West Health Accelerator Advisory Council is a dynamic, cross-sector collaboration uniting bold ideas and visionary leadership from Northwestern Medicine, West Health, and Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. With deep expertise across primary care, mental health care, and health systems, these partners share a powerful commitment: to transform mental health care and expand access to high-quality, patient-centered support.

Together, the Council helps drive the mission and strategic direction of the Accelerator, grounding its work in the real-world experiences of scaling the Collaborative Behavioral Health Program across Northwestern Medicine’s 75+ primary care clinics. By combining innovation with practical insight, the Council advances scalable models that address the mental health crisis head-on – prioritizing equity, accessibility, and lasting impact.

The Northwestern Medicine Collaborative Behavioral Health Program serves as a powerful example of this vision in action, showing how psychiatric care can be seamlessly embedded into primary care through the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM). This approach not only improves outcomes and access but also reduces stigma and fragmentation in care. 

Through this unique partnership, the Advisory Council is accelerating the spread of effective, sustainable solutions – building a future where mental health care is an essential part of how we care for people every day.