Ruth Thomas-Squance, PhD, MPH, is Senior Director of Field Building at the Build Healthy Places Network where she ensures delivery of high quality activities and content in line with the organization’s national Field Building Strategy. Dr. Thomas-Squance advances engagement with state and national initiatives, curates resources and identifies promising practices that build high level support for effective collaborations at the intersection of community development, public health and healthcare sectors.
Dr. Thomas-Squance’s passion for contributing to the promotion of health and social equity has taken her from a successful career in biomedical research to management in the non-profit and public sectors. She brings over 10 years of experience working in multi-sector collaborations with diverse partners. She served as executive director of a Bay Area non-profit providing training in emotional intelligence skills development to low income and minority populations and organizations that work with them. Before joining the Network she worked at San Francisco Department of Public Health in Whole Person Care, a Medi-Cal waiver program strategizing approaches to improve outcomes for adults experiencing homelessness and high users of urgent emergent healthcare services.
Dr. Thomas-Squance earned her doctorate from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK and her Master of Public Health from UC Berkeley. She lives in San Francisco with her family.