Jason Purnell

Dr. Jason Purnell joined the James S. McDonnell Foundation as president in 2023 after leading the community health improvement strategy at BJC HealthCare. He created health equity programs with colleagues and partners and introduced an anchor institution agenda focused on investments in high-poverty communities of color. This work built on his scholarship at Washington University’s Brown School, where in 2014, he and his collaborators released the seminal “For the Sake of All” report on African American health in St. Louis, inspiring policy changes and programmatic innovations. Dr. Purnell’s BA is from Harvard, and his PhD is from Ohio State University.