The Arnold P. Gold Foundation Board Chair, Richard C. Sheerr, has announced a new appointee to the Board of Trustees: Trista M. Walker, MPS, President and CEO at Baldwin & Obenauf, Inc. (BNO) and a member of the Board of Trustees at Jefferson Health.
“We are thrilled to welcome Trista Walker, an extraordinary leader in human-centric design and communications, to the Board of Trustees of the Gold Foundation,” said Mr. Sheerr. “She brings a passion for optimal healthcare and a deep expertise in customer experience, design thinking, and digital innovation. We look forward to working with her to help transform healthcare to be more humanistic for both patients and clinicians.”
The Gold Foundation is a nonprofit organization that champions humanism in healthcare. For more than 30 years, the foundation has worked to foster compassionate, collaborative, scientifically excellent care by engaging medical schools, health systems, companies and individual clinicians around the world. The foundation created the now iconic White Coat Ceremony, which marks the start of training by emphasizing the importance of humanistic care, and the Gold Humanism Honor Society, which has more than 45,000 members who have been peer-nominated for their compassionate patient care.
“It’s a very special honor to join the Gold Foundation during this bold new chapter under the leadership of Dr. Reeves,” said Ms. Walker. “The last few years have proven that transformative progress is possible when smart people from industry and healthcare come together to challenge the status quo. I couldn’t be more thrilled to be part of an organization that has been a convener and a changemaker for more than 30 years, thanks to the vision of Dr. Arnold P. Gold.”
As President and CEO of BNO, Ms. Walker leads a team of talented professionals who are dedicated to deepening and strengthening client and customer relationships through experience design and digital transformation. A full-service creative agency, BNO’s clients include Johnson & Johnson, Verizon, Bristol Myers Squibb, Danaher, Nike, Boehringer Ingelheim, Regeneron, Safran, and Harman (Samsung).
Ms. Walker has over 20 years of experience in customer experience, design thinking, digital innovation, and omni-channel planning, which spans life sciences, healthcare, financial services, consumers, government, and media. As a board member of Jefferson Health, Mrs. Walker has helped the organization grow into a regional leader in value-based care. She also chairs the Clinical Quality Committee and serves on the Executive Strategy Committee. Jefferson Health is a member of the Gold Partners Council, a group of leading health systems and medical schools that support humanism in healthcare and the Gold Foundation’s work.
Previously, Ms. Walker served as Senior Vice-President of Client Services at Compass Healthcare Marketers, an agency focused on helping specialty and biopharma clients leverage the power of digital to drive and optimize brand and portfolio growth.
Ms. Walker graduated with a Master in Professional Studies from The George Washington University. She is also a member of The Gail Bierenbaum Women’s Leadership Council at Rider University. The Council consists of a diverse community of accomplished women committed to advancing women’s leadership, mentoring, and philanthropy.
