L. Gregory Pawlson, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Pawlson held senior positions in academic medicine, public policy/governmental organizations and the payer community. He currently is an certified Leadership and Executive Coach engaged in a wide array of coaching from residents and students to senior leaders in both nursing and medicine. As a fellow at the Institute of Coaching (Mclean-Harvard) he leads an effort on defining coaching and leadership capabilities, and played a seminal role in the development of a leadership life skills course at Mt Sinai Medical Center (NY) and for the American Geriatrics Society. He and his wife, Jean Johnson PhD, founding Dean of the School of Nursing at GWU, recently co-authored a text book, Advancing HealthCare Quality and Safety, and a Coursea Course Leading Healthcare Quality which has had more than 30,000 participants. Before becoming an Executive Coach, Dr. Pawlson served as Executive Director for Quality Innovation for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Washington DC, for two years and prior to that as Executive Vice President of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), for twelve years. While at NCQA, he led the development of NCQA research, quality measurement and related grant and contracting activities, overseeing the ongoing development of the widely used HEDIS clinical performance measures.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Pawlson was involved in Academic Medicine for nearly 25 years, serving as Senior Associate Vice President for Health Affairs and Medical Director for Quality and Utilization Management for the faculty practice at The George Washington University Medical Center. Prior these posts at GW, he was chairman of the University’s Department of Health Care Sciences (clinical primary care and public health) and Director of the Institute for Health Policy, Outcomes and Human Values. During a sabbatical years he served as a Robert Wood Johnson Policy Fellow on the staff of Sen George Mitchell D-Me and later as a Fellow in the Center for the Study of Change in Academic Medicine at the American Association of Medical Colleges.
He received his BS degree., cum laude, from The Pennsylvania State University, an M.D. with Distinction from the University of Pittsburgh, did his internship and residency at Stanford University, He then served as a staff fellow in the Metabolism Branch of the National Heart institute and an endocrine fellow and Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar while obtaining an M.P.H. in Community Medicine at the University of Washington. He and his wife Jean Johnson PhD, FAAN and Founding Dean Emeritus of the George Washington University School of Nursing, have four children, seven grandchildren and reside in Cabin John Maryland and Lake Anna, Virginia.