Hinsdalean prioritizes connection in nonprofit healthcare work

By Anna Hughes

Kristin Tweihs has dedicated her life to improving the health and well-being of communities across the country, including her own.

For 20 years, the Hinsdale resident has spent her career at the intersection of public health and healthcare quality partnerships, focusing on bringing innovative improvements to the industry on a national scale.

“When you live in a community where you’re connected, where you’re safe, where you’re appreciated, you’re much more likely to have better health outcomes,” Tweihs said. “Connecting those dots younger in my career led me to go full force into public health.”

Tweihs serves as Vice President at the American Hospital Association’s Health Research & Educational Trust, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit subsidiary of the AHA, where she leads initiatives that support hospitals and healthcare systems in their communities across the country.

“At the core of all of [my work] is: How do we make healthcare and public health safer, more effective, and more human for patients and people that deliver care?” Tweihs said.

The healthcare industry is facing a myriad of challenges, including workforce shortages and mounting financial pressures. To stay grounded, Tweihs said her team remains focused on the people at the heart of the operation.

“Behind every statistic and every stress on healthcare and public health is a person, a family, or a care team doing their best in a very complex system,” she said.

When it comes to making decisions and implementing new methods within this system, both providers and patients are the top priority.

“Many of my team members are individuals who have been in the hospitals at one time or another, or have cared for a loved one there. So there’s the personal side of knowing what we do,” Tweihs said. “We make decisions to coordinate communities, ensuring that the patient is heard, respected, understood in their complexity… we create these systems around that complexity.”

Tweihs often speaks at major national conferences about the future of healthcare.

Her team’s biggest focus right now is on technology-enabled solutions. Tweihs works with 5,000 hospitals across all 50 states, collaborating alongside federal partners, to scale what really works when it comes to patient care and clinical quality, while also improving the workforce experience.

“We’re at a really pivotal moment where technology and especially AI and use of smarter electronic health records can meaningfully improve quality of life and care,” she said.

Tweihs’s community-first mindset extends beyond her professional role. When she’s not working or home with her family, Tweihs is either volunteering as a member of Monroe School’s PTO or leading her twin daughters’ Daisy Girl Scout troop.

“My work is national,” she said. “My life is very much rooted here in [the] community, and I like to make sure I practice what I preach here at home to try to be a good example…for my girls and for my son.”

While developing the Daisy curriculum, Tweihs and her co-leader wanted to highlight community involvement, confidence, leadership, and public service.

“We’re building additional community members and residents who just understand what it means to give back in this incredible community that we live in,” she said.

As a working mom, Tweihs finds it especially important to be in spaces that uplift other girls and young women.

“Women have been really critical in my success,” Tweihs said. “I want to make sure that I continue where I can to give that back… because I think that those are investments that you see tenfold, where we can be passionate about women supporting women and creating pathways for the next generation.”

As for balancing it all, Tweihs believes that it’s easy to make space for the things that bring her joy.

“[I’m] making sure that I spend my time in spaces that really matter,” she said. “I’m just trying to make a difference to improve the lives of others.”