Paul Tarini is senior program officer for the Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio, which seeks innovative projects that catalyze fundamental breakthroughs in health and health care. Tarini joined the Foundation in 1994, and has served as a senior communications officer working with the Quality Program Management Team, which focused on improving care for chronic conditions in outpatient settings, and with the Human Capital Portfolio, which focuses on assuring the nation has a capable and diverse health and health care workforce. For seven years, he was also the executive editor for Advances, the Foundation’s quarterly newsletter.
Tarini feels that Pioneer has both an opportunity and an obligation to challenge the way we look at the future of health care in this nation. Because the team is dedicated to thinking and talking about new ideas and groundbreaking approaches, including those from nontraditional sources and fields, he believes Pioneer enables the Foundation to make conceptual leaps and take risks in grantmaking that would otherwise not be possible: “Through the Pioneer Portfolio, the Foundation has demonstrated that we’re not only open to really unconventional ideas and different ways of thinking about problems, we’re fascinated by them. We are hungry for them. We look for those kinds of ideas to invest in.”
Tarini came to the Foundation after serving as senior publication information officer in the American Medical Association’s Department of Science News, where he handled media inquiries and outreach related to the AMA’s scientific journals, including JAMA, and organized briefings for the media on various health and medical topics. He also covered business for American Medical News and was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago.
Born in Chicago, Tarini earned an MA in public affairs journalism from Columbia College in Chicago and a BA in political science from Grinnell College in Iowa. A lifelong fan of the mighty Detroit Tigers, Tarini also enjoys cooking and hiking. He currently lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Naomi, who works with a statewide affordable housing coalition, and their twin sons, Ethan and Gabriel.
