Raymond J. Baxter, PhD, is chair of the Blue Shield of California Foundation Board of Trustees where its mission is to make California the healthiest state and ending domestic violence, by addressing the root causes of ill health and inequity. For 15 years, Baxter was Kaiser Permanente’s senior vice president for community benefit, research and health policy. There he built the largest community benefit program in the US, investing over $2 billion annually in community health. He led Kaiser Permanente’s signature national health improvement partnerships, including the Weight of the Nation, the Convergence Partnership and the Partnership for a Healthier America. He established Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Effectiveness and Safety Research and built out its national genomics research bank, served as President of KP International and chaired Kaiser Permanente’s field-leading environmental stewardship work. He was a founding sponsor of the KP School of Medicine. Previously, he led the San Francisco Department of Public Health and New York City Health & Hospitals.

He currently serves on the advisory board of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. He previously served on the Global Agenda Council on Health of the World Economic Forum, and chaired the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine's Roundtable on Population Health Improvement.