Kaptur Announces Guest For State of the Union 2020
Washington, D.C. — Today, Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), announced she will bring Susan Fuehrer, the first president of MetroHealth's Institute for H.O.P.E. (Health, Opportunity, Partnership and Empowerment), to this year's State of the Union. MetroHealth's Institute for H.O.P.E. is a concentrated effort to address the social factors that impact the health of individuals, patients, and entire communities.
Before coming to MetroHealth last Summer, Ms. Fuehrer spent 34 years with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), rising from unpaid intern to CEO of its Northeast Ohio Healthcare System. During her decade as CEO, the VA in Northeast Ohio became recognized as one of the department's largest and best-performing health systems. Under her leadership, it had more clinical centers of excellence and became the longest-running five-star hospital system in the VA.
"I am honored that Susan Fuehrer will be joining me at the State of the Union this year," said Rep. Kaptur. "Susan has led a remarkable career as a public servant improving VA's delivery of high-quality care to our veterans in Northern Ohio as CEO. Today, she is using her lifetime of experience to reduce healthcare disparities in communities across our region and improve Ohioans' access to high-quality, affordable healthcare."
"Having worked with Congresswoman Kaptur for many years while I was at the VA, it's an honor to be her guest at State of the Union speech," said Fuehrer. "I look forward to telling her about the important work I am now engaged in through MetroHealth's Institute for H.O.PE. At the VA, we learned the absolute importance of treating the whole patient -- that whether a veteran had a decent place to live and proper nutrition often had more to do with his or her overall health than anything we did in a clinical setting. I'm now bringing those lessons to MetroHealth where we believe that by collaborating with partners in and out of government, across a broad range of issues and needs, we can improve the health outcomes for entire communities of the people we serve."
Last fall, Fuehrer won the Presidential Rank Award, the country's highest honor for career federal civil servants. It goes to those outstanding leaders who achieve results and consistently demonstrate strength, integrity and a relentless commitment to excellence in public service.
The Institute for H.O.P.E aims to address the root causes of health problems by removing barriers and engaging community partners so more people can get the tools they need to grow and succeed. Fuehrer leads the efforts of MetroHealth, Greater Cleveland's public, safety-net hospital system, to bring together neighborhood programs and resources to complement traditional clinical care and take a comprehensive approach to social determinants of health such as housing, nutrition, transportation and employment.
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