Dr. Kimberlydawn Wisdom
Kimberlydawn Wisdom, MD, MS, FACEP is the Senior Vice President of Community Health & Equity and Chief Wellness and Diversity Officer at Henry Ford Health. She has been a board-certified Emergency Medicine physician for 30 years, the Chair of the Gail and Lois Warden Endowment on Multicultural Health, and Michigan’s and the nation’s First State-level Surgeon General. In 2012 she was appointed by President Obama to serve on the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion and Integrative and Public Health. Since 1988 she has been on the faculty of University of Michigan (UM) Medical School’s Department of Learning Health Sciences and adjunct professor in the UM School of Public Health in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education.
In 2023 Dr. Wisdom was appointed Professor-Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Michigan State University. Dr. Wisdom focuses on health disparities/health care equity, infant mortality/maternal and child health, chronic disease, unintended pregnancy, mitigating unhealthy lifestyles (physical inactivity, unhealthy eating habits, and tobacco use) and she is most recently is focused on advancing trauma-informed healthcare organizations (including training, care and leadership). Dr. Wisdom serves as co-chair of Henry Ford Health’s Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) Council where the social drives of health are addressed including working collaboratively with partners to enhance a Community Information Exchange (CIE).
She has worked collaboratively with school districts, faith-based organizations and the business community. More specifically, Dr. Wisdom provides strong leadership in diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice (DEIJ), community benefit/population health, and improving the health of those disproportionately affected by poor health outcomes. She has co-lead the development and implementation of the Henry Ford Health’s 5-year, board-approved DEIJ Strategic Plan and is an advisor to many other organization regarding DEIJ efforts. She is one of the Imperative leads for 10-year early childhood initiatives entitled “Hope Starts Here” funded by the Kellogg & Kresge Foundations.
She founded the award-winning African American Initiative for Male Health Improvement (AIM –HI) and most recently, the Women Inspired Neighborhood (WIN) Network which aims to improve access to healthcare and reduce infant mortality in neighborhoods in Detroit. Since 2008, she has chaired the Detroit Regional Infant Mortality Reduction Task Force. In 2007, she founded a youth leadership development program– Generation With Promise (GWP) – designed to equip youth to drive policy, environmental and behavioral change in their school and community. It has continued with grant support for 16 years. GWP youth were featured on the cover of Modern Healthcare in June 2014. Dr. Wisdom has been an advisor to the Institute on Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Social Integration Grant Program and Chaired the American Hospital Associations’ Institute for Diversity & Health Equity for 2 years, 2021-2022. Dr. Wisdom is the recipient of numerous awards, has authored several peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and appeared several times on national television, including ABC’s Nightline, The Food Network, and CNN. She has presented at academic meetings to audiences from across the country and the globe.
