Thank you Anne Warhover!

The Health Care Advocacy Program, a grantee of The Colorado Health Foundation, would like to thank Anne Warhover for her contribution to the state of Colorado. Anne has served as the President and CEO of The Colorado Health Foundation for the past ten years. During that time, she led the Foundation’s staff growth from 15 to 70 employees and its annual grantmaking from three to over 100 million dollars.

With the New Year, Anne will usher in a new phase in her career as she departs The Colorado Health Foundation. In an interview with Catherine Strode, she discusses her greatest accomplishments at the Foundation and explains, what she believes to be, her personal legacy.

What do you consider some of the highlights of your tenure?

“I think the vision of making Colorado the healthiest state. That has been adopted by numerous other people and it is no longer just our vision; it’s a vision that’s shared by the governor and by other entities in the state as their vision. I think it’s a real highlight when you establish a vision for your own Foundation and it becomes a vision for the entire state. Another highlight is the fact that we have a very focused way of approaching our work that is driven by results that we want to see, this accountability piece. We established a Colorado health report card and that has become the way Coloradans, not just us but all entities, measure the state of health in Colorado. The Colorado Health Symposium has become a ‘must event’ for health professionals all over the country.”

How has the Colorado Health Symposium changed over the years under your leadership?

“It’s grown in its sophistication and in the quality of information that’s shared. When it started, it was an event that was far less attended than today. It wasn’t as accessible; today it’s at Keystone rather than at Beaver Creek. We do a lot of scholarships. We’ve extended the online version of the event tremendously. We have public health students come to the event. It’s just got a much bigger footprint than it did ten years ago to nonprofits all over the state, regardless of their budget. It used to be attended mostly by doctors. Today we want a more diverse population to come to the event.”

What philosophical changes have you seen over the past ten years in the marketplace?

“A huge philosophical change in our Foundation is being about transformational change rather than grantmaking. We think of grantmaking as just simply a tool in the toolbox. We have other tools as well that we’ve developed over time: policy, communications, and leadership. What we’re really about is transformational change and improving conditions that people live in. I think that’s a big reframing of one of the Foundation’s fundamental businesses. The other one I think is moving from health care to health. We’ve certainly done that here at The Colorado Health Foundation but I think that’s an industry movement. People in businesses, foundations, nonprofits, and government are much more focused on health than ever before and preventing disease and developing a culture of health.”

Do you have what you feel is a personal legacy of your work at The Colorado Health Foundation?

“I think our work around healthy places is a personal legacy. Prior to this job, I was with the Downtown Denver Partnership and was very involved with a national group called the Urban Land Institute. I was able to bring the Urban Land Institute into the world of health by dreaming up this idea that if people lived and worked in healthier places, they would be healthier. We brought the Urban Land Institute, which is private sector developers, into this work and they have now made it their international priority. We started it here in Colorado. We worked with them on three communities that we chose. They in turn said this is important work; we are going to make it into our number one priority for our work around the world. I felt pretty good about that.”