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Dr. Donald M. Berwick is the president and chief executive officer for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and one of the nation's leading authorities on health care quality and improvement. He is also a clinical professor of pediatrics and health care policy at the Harvard Medical School and professor in the department of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Berwick has served as vice chair of the United States Preventive Services Task Force, the first "independent member" of the board of trustees of the American Hospital Association, and chair of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. An elected member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Dr. Berwick served two terms on the IOM's Governing Council and was a member of the IOM's Global Health Board. He served on President Clinton's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Healthcare Industry.

He is a recipient of numerous awards, including the 1999 Joint Commission's Ernest Amory Codman Award, the 2002 American Hospital Association's Award of Honor, the 2006 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award for Individual Achievement from the National Quality Forum and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the 2007 William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research, and the 2007 Heinz Award for Public Policy from the Heinz Family Foundation.  In 2005, he was appointed "Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire" by the Queen of England in honor of his work with the British National Health Service.