Nancy E. Roman Named President and CEO, Partnership for a Healthier America

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 11, 2017) — The Partnership for a Healthier America today named Nancy E. Roman President and CEO of the nonpartisan nonprofit that brings together public, private, and nonprofit leaders to broker solutions and make meaningful commitments to end childhood obesity. 

Ms. Roman joins PHA following an international career spanning journalism, business, and public service with the U.S. government and the United Nations. She will begin her new role September 5. Ms. Roman succeeds Larry A. Soler.

“Nancy is a highly accomplished executive who possesses both unique experience as a leader and an intense determination as an innovator to tackle tough societal issues and develop solutions,” said Dr. James R. Gavin III, PHA Board Chairman. “At CAFB, she expertly led and inspired diverse groups to unite behind the drive to expand healthier choices for low income communities in need of more – and better – food options.”

Ms. Roman is currently President and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB), the Washington, D.C. region’s largest organization working to solve hunger and its companion problems: chronic undernutrition, and diet related health issues like heart disease, and obesity. CAFB annually provides food and nutrition resources to 540,000 people – 12 percent of the region’s total population – through 444 partner nonprofits in the District, Northern Virginia, and Maryland.

“We are so grateful to Larry for all of his hard work and enduring commitment to the issue of healthy families. And we are thrilled to welcome Nancy to the Partnership for a Healthier America. As President and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank, Nancy brought the vision, fortitude, and focus on impact that will be essential to the future of PHA. Mrs. Obama is looking forward to working with Nancy and the entire PHA team in the years ahead,” said Melissa Winter, Chief of Staff to former First Lady Michelle Obama.

Under Roman’s leadership, the food bank became a national voice for embedding health and wellness in hunger relief work. During her tenure, the CAFB dramatically increased the health of its food inventory by working with its corporate retail partners; pioneered new delivery models for fruits, vegetables, and nutrition resources; and advocated for access to affordable groceries in low income areas through both existing and innovative models.   “Food has the power to change lives, and partnerships have the power to change the world,” Roman said. “Health and wellness are the bedrock to strong communities and a strong society – and I’m honored to be able to help PHA take its work fostering both of those things to the next level.”

Prior to joining CAFB in January 2013, Ms. Roman was on the leadership team of the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP), overseeing public policy, private partnerships, fundraising, and communications for the world’s largest humanitarian agency feeding 100 million people in 75 countries.

Prior to joining WFP, Ms. Roman served as Vice President of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C.; as President of the G7 Group, a strategic consulting firm; and as a journalist covering politics, congress, foreign policy and economics. She first came to Washington as press secretary and foreign affairs adviser for the late U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw, Jr. (R-FL), a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Roman currently serves on the board of trustees of Global Communities, an international NGO that works on hunger, health, micro-finance and lending to support lives and livelihoods, and of the Millennial Action Project (MAP), which organizes nonpartisan communities to find common ground on the issues facing millennials and future generations.

She holds a Master of Arts degree in International Economics and American Foreign Policy from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and French from Baylor University.

Roman is married to Steven Cohen and has two children, Daniel and Taylor Beth.

The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) is devoted to working with the private sector to ensure the health of our nation’s youth by solving the childhood obesity crisis. In 2010, PHA was created in conjunction with – but independent from – First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! effort. PHA is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that is led by some of the nation’s most respected health and childhood obesity experts. PHA brings together public, private and nonprofit leaders to broker meaningful commitments and develop strategies to end childhood obesity. Most important, PHA ensures that commitments made are commitments kept by working with unbiased, third parties to monitor and publicly report on the progress our partners are making. For more information about PHA, please visit www.aHealthierAmerica.org and follow PHA on Twitter @PHAnews.

CONTACT
Blythe Thomas
Partnership for a Healthier America
Office: 202–864–6053
blthomas@ahealthieramerica.org