Ann Barnes

Dr. Ann Barnes is president and CEO of Episcopal Health Foundation (EHF). She joined EHF in October 2022. Throughout her career, Dr. Barnes has led innovative care solutions that extend beyond the doctor’s office to address the social, behavioral, and environmental drivers of health.

Previously, Dr. Barnes served as senior vice president and chief health officer at Harris Health, the largest safety-net health system in Greater Houston. In this role, she developed the system’s  first health equity strategy and led efforts to improve health outcomes, prevent disease, and address chronic conditions by integrating clinical care with community-based resources that influence non-medical drivers of health, including food security, access to safe places to exercise, and more.

Dr. Barnes was also chief medical officer at Legacy Community Health, a large federally qualified health center system in Houston serving more than 170,000 patients. There, she introduced the Health Leads model for patient health, which focuses on addressing non-medical drivers of health. In addition, she served as principal investigator for a National Institutes of Health project that established a first-of-its-kind registry to identify factors that lead to successful weight loss and long-term maintenance among African Americans.

A proud native of Houston’s Fifth Ward, Dr. Barnes returned to serve Houston’s most vulnerable communities after graduating from Yale University and Harvard Medical School. She is a board-certified internist who completed her residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and earned a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Texas School of Public Health.