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Joe Betancourt

Joe Betancourt

Board Member

Joseph R. Betancourt, M.D., M.P.H., is the president of the Commonwealth Fund. One of the nation’s preeminent leaders in health care policy, equity, quality, and community health, Betancourt formerly served as the senior vice president for Equity and Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and as founding director of the Disparities Solutions Center. He has devoted his career to improving the quality and value of health care for diverse populations.

Betancourt has served on committees that have provided advice to all agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Health Resources and Services Administration, among others. He has also provided guidance to private industry, and at the state and local level, including a term on the Boston Board of Health. His roles in governance have included serving on the Board of Trinity Health, Neighborhood Health Plan, and the Massachusetts Health and Hospitals Association.

Betancourt is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a board-certified internist, providing primary care to a large Spanish-speaking and minority patient panel. He earned his M.D. from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and completed an internal medicine residency at New York Hospital–Cornell Medical Center. Following his residency, he was a member of one of the first classes in the Commonwealth Fund–Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy, where he earned an M.P.H. in health policy and management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

An author of nearly 80 peer-reviewed articles, Betancourt has served on several Institute of Medicine committees, including the committee that produced the seminal report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health Care.

Betancourt is an Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow and recipient of the Sumner M. Redstone Endowed Chair in Health Equity at MGH. In 2022, he was named one of Modern Healthcare’s “Top 25 Diversity Leaders,” and in 2023 as one of the “Top 50 Clinical Healthcare Executives in the United States.”

Land Acknowledgment

At La Colaborativa, we believe that building a more just, equitable, and healthy future begins with recognizing the histories of the land and the communities that came before us, while confronting the systemic inequities that continue to shape our society today.

We acknowledge that La Colaborativa is located in Winnisimmet, now known as Chelsea, Massachusetts, on the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Massachusett People, whose deep connections to this land, culture, and community endure today.

We honor the Indigenous peoples who have stewarded this land for generations and recognize the lasting consequences of colonization, forced displacement, dispossession, and systemic injustice. These histories are not simply part of the past. Their legacies continue to influence access to land, housing, healthcare, education, economic opportunity, and the resources that allow individuals, families, and communities to thrive.

At La Colaborativa, we understand that health equity cannot be achieved without addressing the social determinants of health, the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age.

Structural racism, poverty, housing instability, food insecurity, and barriers to education, employment, and healthcare disproportionately affect immigrant, Indigenous, and historically marginalized communities, perpetuating cycles of inequality across generations.

This understanding is at the heart of La Colaborativa's holistic, community-driven model. Our work recognizes that the challenges facing our communities are deeply interconnected and cannot be addressed in isolation. By integrating housing stability, food access, healthcare, workforce development, education, economic mobility, and community advocacy, we work to address the root causes of inequity, strengthen community resilience, and create pathways toward lasting social and economic opportunity.

Rooted in our mission of Levantando al Pueblo, we believe that meaningful change begins by centering the voices, experiences, cultural identities, and leadership of the communities most affected by systemic injustice. Just as we honor the resilience and enduring presence of Indigenous peoples, we recognize the strength of immigrant families and historically marginalized communities who continue to shape our collective future.

For us, a land acknowledgment is more than a statement of respect. It is a reminder of our responsibility to turn recognition into meaningful action, challenge the systems that perpetuate inequality, and advance a model of community well-being grounded in dignity, belonging, self-determination, and justice.

We offer this acknowledgment with respect and gratitude to the Massachusett People, their ancestors, elders, and present-day communities, and with a continued commitment to learning, solidarity, and building a future where every community has the resources, opportunities, and power to thrive.