Donna Lynne (born October 27, 1953) is the chief executive officer of

Denver Health Denver Health Medical Center, formerly named Denver General Hospital, is a hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Denver, founded in 1860. It is one of five Level I Trauma Centers in Colorado. Denver Health Medical Center is one of the ...

. She was the senior vice president and chief operating officer of

Columbia University Irving Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC), also known as the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), is an academic medical center and the largest campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. It includes Co ...

before joining Denver Health in September 2022. Lynne is a member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

who served as the 49th

Lieutenant Governor of Colorado The lieutenant governor of Colorado is the second-highest-ranking member of the executive department of the Government of Colorado, United States, below the governor of Colorado. The lieutenant governor of Colorado, who acts as governor of Colorad ...

, from 2016 to 2019. She also served in a dual capacity as the chief operating officer of the State of Colorado. She was appointed to the position by

Colorado governor The governor of Colorado is the head of government of the U.S. state of Colorado. The governor is the head of the executive branch of Colorado's state government and is charged with enforcing state laws. The governor has the power to either app ...

John Hickenlooper John Wright Hickenlooper Jr. (; born February 7, 1952) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Colorado since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 42nd governor of Colorado from 2011 to 20 ...

on March 23, 2016, and was confirmed by the Colorado House of Representatives and the state Senate on May 4, 2016. Lynne replaced the outgoing lieutenant governor, Joseph A. Garcia. Prior to her appointment, Lynne was an executive with

Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente (; KP), commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser P ...

. In September 2017, Lynne announced she was running for

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

in the 2018 election. She lost the Democratic primary on June 26, 2018 to

Jared Polis Jared Schutz Polis (; born May 12, 1975) is an American politician, entrepreneur, businessman, and philanthropist, serving as the 43rd governor of Colorado since January 2019. He served one term on the Colorado State Board of Education from 200 ...

Early life and education

Lynne was born on a Navy base in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

. Her father at the time of her birth was in the military for 20 years. Both of her parents were

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

veterans. Lynne is a graduate of the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...

, where she received a

B. A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in economics and political science. She also attended

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

, where she received a

Master of Public Administration The Master of Public Administration (M.P.Adm., M.P.A., or MPA) is a specialized higher professional post graduate degree in public administration, similar/ equivalent to the Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the issues of ...

and obtained a Doctor of Public Health degree from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Career

Lynne spent 20 years working in

New York City government The government of New York City, headquartered at New York City Hall in Lower Manhattan, is organized under the New York City Charter and provides for a mayor-council system. The mayor is elected to a four-year term and is responsible for the ...

. During that time she served as first deputy commissioner for the office of labor relations, director for the mayor's office of operations, and senior vice president for the New York City health and hospital corps. After leaving New York City government, Lynne went on to work for

Group Health Incorporated EmblemHealth is one of the United States' largest nonprofit health plans. It is headquartered at 55 Water Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is a multi-billion company with over 3 million members. EmblemHealth was created in 2006 thr ...

(GHI) as the executive vice president before being promoted to president of GHI HMO, a subsidiary of GHI. After leaving GHI, Lynne became the president of

for the Colorado Region. Within Kaiser, Lynne also served as executive vice president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc and as a group president for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals. In her role as group president, she oversaw the Colorado, Northwest, and Hawaii regions. During her time at Kaiser, Lynne was selected by the Denver Business Journal as one of the city's "Outstanding Women in Business" in 2008, and as one of the Top 25 Women in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare magazine in 2015. Lynne is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at

, teaching a course at

Mailman School of Public Health The Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Columbia University. Located on the Columbia University Medical Center campus in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, the school i ...

on Quality of Care. Throughout her career, Lynne has served on a number of boards, including the Colorado Education Initiative, the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization, the

Denver Museum of Nature and Science The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a municipal natural history and science museum in Denver, Colorado. It is a resource for informal science education in the Rocky Mountain region. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help mus ...

and Teach for America-Colorado. Additionally, Lynne is the former chair of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. Lynne served in a dual role as both the lieutenant governor of Colorado and the state's chief operating officer. She was appointed to the position by Governor John Hickenlooper.

Lieutenant governor

As lieutenant governor of Colorado, Lynne was the second-highest-ranking official in the Colorado state government. In her position, Lynne acted as part of the senior team working with the Governor on policy, budget, and legislative matters that impact 5.5 million Coloradans. Lynne co-chaired the Colorado Space Coalition, the Early Childhood Leadership Commission, the Governor's Commission on Community Service, and the Colorado Commission on Indian Affairs. The lieutenant governor's office also provides oversight for the office of eHealth Innovation and the Colorado State Innovation Model. At the beginning of her term, Lynne filled in as the interim director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education until Diane Duffy was appointed to the position in October 2016. Due to her background, one of Lynne's major focuses throughout her term had been on state and federal health care reform. In a guest commentary article in

The Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...

in May 2017, Lynne expressed her dismay with the recently proposed American Health Care Act (AHCA), stating that the republican-sponsored bill would have a damaging impact on all of Colorado, but specifically its rural communities, by cutting critical funding to the state's Medicaid program. Lynne also wrote about the need to preserve Colorado's outdoor recreation spots in a separate Denver Post article written at the beginning of 2017, highlighting the fact that many of Colorado's beloved outdoor landmarks—like the state's

rivers A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

, hiking and biking trails, campgrounds, and

fourteeners In the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a fourteener is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least . The 96 fourteeners in the United States are all west of the Mississippi River. Colorado has the most (53) of any single ...

—are in desperate need of improvements. In the article, Lynne expressed that this issue is of particular importance to her because outdoor recreation is one of the major drivers of the Colorado economy and because she has personally summited all of Colorado's mountains that are over 14,000 feet tall.

Chief operating officer

As a chief operating officer for the state of Colorado, Lynne launched the Governor's Dashboard, an online tool that allows viewers to see a snapshot of state progress with regards to five major priorities that are vital to fulfilling the vision of a Healthy Colorado. Lynne also managed quarterly performance reviews across cabinet departments, helped to launch customer feedback surveys for high-volume state services, and used information garnered from those surveys to assess the quality of statewide services. In the spring of 2017, Lynne also participated in and oversaw the fourth successful Performance Academy, a program that trains state leaders in how to better serve Coloradans. In April 2017, Lynne concluded a tour of all 64 counties of Colorado where she engaged directly with many community leaders.

References

External links