lorraine cole, ph.d.,
chief executive officer

Prior to the YWCA, Dr. Cole led the Black Women’s Health Imperative for nearly six years. Dr. Cole was also the executive director of the National Medical Association for six years. She earned her Ph.D. in Communication Science at Northwestern University and is a Certified Association Executive.

Dr. Cole is nationally recognized as a tenacious health advocate, advancing the health needs of minority and underserved populations. She has been a fellow of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, a research fellow of both the Ford and Rockefeller foundations and a health-advocacy fellow of the Avery Institute for Social Change. She is a member of the Panel of Experts of the Office of Women’s Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the African American Work Group for the Office of Minority Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Meharry Medical College recently awarded Dr. Cole the “Dr. Dorothy I. Height Vision Award.” Dr. Height, one of the major figures in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s, worked for the YWCA for 33 years and is credited with establishing the YWCA’s Office of Racial Justice Planning, which developed strategies to promote equal opportunity for women of all races.

Dr. Cole also has served on a number of national boards, including the American Society of Association Executives and the Women’s Health Advisory for Pfizer. She was an advisor on health policy for Heart and Soul magazine and is a women’s health consultant to EBONY, which recently named her one of the magazine’s “Women on the Cutting Edge of Health Care and Research.”