Ramiah leads the Essential Hospitals Institute—the research, education, dissemination, and leadership development arm of America’s Essential Hospitals. Ramiah joined America’s Essential Hospitals in 2015 with a well-established career in public health and health services research that spans two decades. Ramiah has extensive experience conducting research and managing federally and privately funded technical assistance projects and research programs. She is highly skilled in population health, patient and family engagement, and measures and materials development.

Before joining America’s Essential Hospitals, Ramiah was a principal researcher at the American Institute for Research and an assistant research professor in the department of health policy at The George Washington University (GWU) School of Public Health and Health Services. She managed several major projects, in patient engagement, health promotion and disease prevention, quality improvement, cost and coverage, and equity. At GWU, Ramiah oversaw the technical assistance portfolio of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q). Before her academic research work, Ramiah held leadership roles with the Association of Schools of Public Health and West Virginia Smoking Cessation and Reduction in Pregnancy Treatment Dissemination, serving as a manager and deputy director, respectively. Ramiah serves as a member of the National Advisory Group for RWJF Culture of Health Prize.

She is a 2018 grantee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Building Trust and Mutual Respect to Improve Health program, managed by AcademyHealth. 

Authored by Kalpana Ramiah, Dr.P.H., MS.c., C.P.H.