Padilla ’81 Appointed President of Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut

Frances Padilla ’81 was appointed president of the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, a nonprofit that has lobbied for universal health care in the state. Padilla, who joined the foundation in 2004 and served as executive vice president, succeeds Juan A. Figueroa, the founding president, who will step down in September.

Under her leadership, the foundation has employed an activist philanthropy approach to build a movement for universal health care by funding results-oriented outreach, education and mobilization. She has also directed the foundation’s research and policy initiatives, which culminated in the development of Connecticut’s historic SustiNet health care reform policy in 2009.

Padilla currently serves on the Governor’s SustiNet Health Care Cabinet, charged with overseeing the implementation and integration of federal health care reform under the Affordable Care Act with state-based health care reform initiatives.

A psychology major at Wesleyan, Padilla began her career in philanthropy as a program officer at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. She later served as associate director for special projects and planning at the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. For 10 years before joining the foundation, Padilla was president of New Paradigms Consulting, a business which she founded and grew into a nationally recognized organization serving foundations, nonprofit organizations and government agencies. New Paradigms specialized in program and policy evaluation, strategic planning and organizational capacity building.

She holds a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.