Paula A. Gutierrez

Paula A. Gutierrez is a trailblazing leader and passionate voice for equity with almost two decades of experience in the healthcare industry. Paula comes to The Cook’s Nook with experience in health equity, clinical operations, and managing internal and external diversity relations spaces. She serves as Sr. Director of Social Care & Community Partnerships at Cityblock Health. This value-based healthcare provider partners with managed care organizations to improve access to care for high-risk and rising-risk populations, particularly Medicaid, dually eligible, and lower-income Medicare beneficiaries.  

Before Cityblock Health, Paula served as Director of Health Equity at CVS Kidney Care, where she created the inaugural health equity strategy to achieve equitable health outcomes nationwide in communities with chronic kidney and end-stage renal disease.  

Paula’s healthcare leadership experience also includes:

• Director of Diversity and Inclusion at RWJBarnabas Health
• Administrative Director for the Kidney/Pancreas and Liver Transplant Divisions at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center 
• Various leadership roles with the NJ Sharing Network: collaborating with healthcare systems, transplant centers, and community organizations to increase access and awareness of organ and tissue donation and transplantation. 

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Paula helped lead RWJBarnabas Health’s outreach efforts in the Hispanic community to increase COVID-19 awareness and encourage vaccination, reducing cases among Hispanics in Somerset County, NJ, and garnered statewide recognition. 

Paula has received national and state recognition for her accomplishments:

• Named a “Top 15 Woman in Power Impacting Diversity” by DiversityPlus Magazine and one of New Jersey’s Most Influential DEI Leaders by ROI-NJ in 2021.
• Operational oversight and expansion of the Babs Sipertsein PROUD Center, NJ’s 1st LGBTQ+ healthcare center affiliated with a healthcare system. 
• Co-authored a Population Health Management textbook chapter for graduate students. 

Paula is a Board Trustee and Vice Chair at Partners for Health Foundation and an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University’s School of Health and Medical Sciences. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration from Seton Hall University. She resides in Montclair, NJ.