Committee
Leah Binder, MA, MGA
President & Chief Executive Officer
Leah Binder, MA, MGA, is President & CEO of The Leapfrog Group, representing employers and other purchasers of health care calling for improved safety and quality in hospitals. She is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and consistently named among Modern Healthcare’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in healthcare.
Under her leadership, The Leapfrog Group has grown fourfold in size, and launched major new initiatives including the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, which assigns letter grades assessing the safety of general hospitals across the country, as well as ratings of ambulatory surgery centers and outpatient surgery and the Judie Burrows Education Institute.
She spearheaded successful initiatives nationally, including partnerships to reduce early elective deliveries, promote better hand hygiene in health care settings, reduce infections, improve health care transparency, and promote safe use of health technology.
She has served on numerous national boards and councils, including the National Quality Forum, Women of Impact, CMMI’s Accountable Care Action Collaborative, the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, AARP’s Champions for Nursing, and CGFNS.
Prior to her position at The Leapfrog Group, Leah spent eight years as vice president at Franklin Community Health Network, an award-winning rural hospital network in Farmington, Maine. Prior to that she served as senior policy advisor at the New York City Mayor’s Office. She started her career at the National League for Nursing, where she handled policy and communications for more than 6 years.
Ms. Binder has a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and two master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, one from the Annenberg School of Communication and the other from the Fels Institute of Government. She was born and raised in Maine and lives in Maryland with her husband and two sons.