David L. Knowlton
President & Chief Executive Officer
NJ Health Care Quality Institute
Pennington, NJ
Mr. Knowlton has been a leader and advisor in health issues in New Jersey and nationally since 1977. Mr. Knowlton founded and served as Executive Director of the Health Care Payers Coalition of New Jersey; a non-profit corporation representing business and labor organization who provide healthcare. He currently serves as a permanent member of the Coalition’s Board and Executive Committee. He has served as a Vice President of the Medical Inter-Insurance Exchange (MIIX), a medical malpractice company owned by the Medical Society of New Jersey. Mr. Knowlton is currently the President and CEO of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute. Founded by the Coalition, the Institute is dedicated to eliminating medical errors and improving health care quality.
Mr. Knowlton currently serves on the Board and as immediate past Chairman of the Leapfrog Group, a nationally recognized foundation committed to reduce medical errors and improve the quality of patient care throughout the United States. He has served as a member of the National Quality Forum’s (NQF) Steering Committees for Standardizing Cardiac Surgery Performance Measures, Assessing ACE Inhibitors and ARBS as Quality Measures, Hospice and Palliative Care Measures, “Common Format” Development, Hospital Acquired Infections and was just appointed to the Patient Safety Indicators Steering Committee. He co-chaired the NQF Steering Committee on Stroke Measures. Mr. Knowlton served as the Deputy Commissioner of Health for the State of New Jersey from 1987 to 1990. He also served on the Commissioner’s Long Term Care Task Force and New Jersey’s Health Data Advisory Committee and currently serves on the Commissioner’s Quality Improvement Advisory Committee. He has been recommended by the United States Trustee and appointed by the Court as a “Patient Care Ombudsman” to protect patient rights and quality in five health care bankruptcy proceedings.
He was a principal presenter and author on the subject of “Managed Care and HIV” for the Kaiser Family Foundation AIDS Symposium. Mr. Knowlton has authored several published articles on health care coalitions and related health care management issues. He is a member of the Leadership Team of the Consumer Disclosure Project nationally and is a Senior Scholar at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He has also taught political science at Rutgers College, The State University of New Jersey and has taught Public Health in Urban Ministry at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. He chaired the health reform working group for Senator Joseph Vitale, which resulted in the first wave of health reform in New Jersey in 2009. Most recently he was appointed to serve as Chairman of the Health Sub-Committee of Governor-Elect Christie’s Transition Team.
Mr. Knowlton holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in psychology and education from University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut) respectively.
