Dr. Edward earned her BA, MS in Education, and PhD from the Universities of Florida and Pennsylvania, respectively. She is a fellow at the Adaptive Leadership Initiative at Harvard University.
With thirty years of work experience, Dr. Carladenise Armbrister Edwards has held positions in state and federal administration as well as assistant dean at the University of Pennsylvania. She is an experienced leader in the healthcare industry and most recently held the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Henry Ford Health, a $6.8 billion integrated health care delivery system with headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. She oversaw strategy for Providence St. Joseph Health, a $24 billion healthcare organization with headquarters in Seattle, Washington, where she also served as chief contracting officer and chief administrative officer for population health.
Dr. Edwards has a track record of success, having helped healthcare organizations increase operational efficiency. In addition to her successful career as a fundraiser, which has seen revenue increases reaching $3.4B. Her academic training and professional skills in medical sociology, epidemiology, marketing and business development, health information technology, and healthcare financing make her a highly sought-after health director, speaker, and adviser.
She is a board member for CancerIQ, Sound Physicians, and Clover Health (NASDAQ: CLOV). In addition, she provides strategic advice to Parsley Health, 4L Data Intelligence, and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.
Dr. Edwards and her husband Herman Edwards established two scholarships for African-American students seeking higher education. One at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing and the other at Johnson C. Smith University. She is most proud of her community involvement, which includes serving on the board of directors at Heluna Health, where she chairs the advancement committee and chairs the finance committee. Additionally, she serves on the finance committee and the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s board of directors for the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM).
She was honored as one of the top women leaders in healthcare by Modern Healthcare and Becker’s in 2022, and the Michigan Chronicle named her one of its 50 Women of Excellence. Her colleagues also chose her to serve as cohort president.