Biography

Kaytura (Kay) Felix, MD, joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in 2016, bringing her exceptional experience in leadership development, collaboration, and coaching to the Foundation’s mission to advance a Culture of Health. She heads RWJF’s efforts to develop leadership within its Clinical Scholars, Culture of Health Leaders, Health Policy Research, and Interdisciplinary Research programs. She praises these and other RWJF programs for “enabling leaders to come together— across health care settings, disciplines, and business sectors—to build healthier and more equitable communities that can reach out to our nation’s most vulnerable and underserved.” Previously, Felix was an executive coach and speaker for ISL Coaching, a company she founded to help physicians, nurses, and other health professionals cultivate the conversational and coordination skills needed to improve performance and enhance their organizations. She also served as senior advisor for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this role, she established the Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN), the first patient-centered outcomes research program for underserved communities. She also served in other positions with HRSA, including chief medical officer, director of quality and data, chief of the quality data branch, senior advisor on minority health, and medical officer. Earlier, she provided clinical care as a hospitalist in Baltimore, Md., and was a staff physician with Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. From 1997 to 1999, Felix was an RWJF Clinical Scholar at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She also helped RWJF launch the National Health Plan Disparities Collaborative, which RWJF and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) co-funded. Felix earned a BS from the University of South Florida and an MD from Weill Cornell Medical College. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Originally from the small Caribbean island of Dominica, she now lives outside Washington, D.C. with Camara, her daughter, and Brett, her nephew. In her spare time she hosts Savvy Black Women at Work, a free online community, and also hikes, cooks, and practices yoga, Tai Chi, and Qi Gong.