Massachusetts Department of Public Health
250 Washington Street
5th floor
Boston
MAUSA
02108
Biographical Sketch: Brief Biographical Sketch
Gail Hirsch
Ms. Hirsch works at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH), where she has coordinated statewide public health efforts to support community health worker (CHW) workforce development for over 15 years and is currently the Director of the MDPH Office of Community Health Workers. She oversaw the implementation of Section 110 of Chapter 58 (Massachusetts’ 2006 landmark healthcare reform legislation), which mandated the Department of Public Health to conduct a CHW workforce investigation and report the findings and recommendations for a sustainable community health worker program to the legislature. The comprehensive report was released to the legislature in January 2010. Ms. Hirsch is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Association of Community Health Workers, the newsletter editor for the CHW Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA), and the author of 2005 DPH report, “Community Health Workers: Essential to Improving Health in Massachusetts.” She played a key role in planning and implementing a national invitational meeting of researchers, CHWs, and key policy makers to create a national research agenda for the CHW field. She currently serves on the Health System Performance and Public Health Steering Committee of the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) and holds a Masters Degree in Education.