Voices of U of U Health
Leader Profile: Hailey Ritchie Finds Common Ground and Gives Oxygen to Hope
By Hailey Ritchie, JD
My path to becoming Chief Health Policy Officer for University of Utah Health was not a straight one.
It crisscrossed state borders, different schools, and even personal tragedy. All those experiences led to a deep connection with people from all walks of life. That prepared me well for this role, which is all about connecting with people.
A Winding Path
I grew up splitting my time between rural Idaho and the Salt Lake City metro area. My father lived near Burley, Idaho, and I spent summers there, raising lambs in 4-H, gleaning potatoes, and fishing the Snake River.
During the school year, I lived in Utah north of Salt Lake City, spending most of my time hooping with the neighborhood boys. Growing up in these two very different communities taught me about the power and importance of perspective.
My life abruptly changed when my best friend was killed in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. We were only 15.
I coped with the immense grief and loss by volunteering for after-school programs and the local Boys & Girls Club. Volunteering helped me regain a sense of purpose and instilled a strong desire to help others.
After I completed my undergraduate degree, I accepted a position at Weber Human Services in Ogden. Our team worked closely with local educators and community leaders to provide K-12 students with prevention and early intervention services related to substance use disorder.
Through that work, I met a guardian ad litem, an attorney who represents the best interests of children in cases of alleged abuse, neglect, or dependency in the juvenile courts. That spurred me to apply to the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah.
I thought I would use my law degree to advocate for kids in challenging situations. After completing an externship with a juvenile court judge and seeing firsthand just how devastating those cases can be, I found myself questioning if I was on the right path. I decided to pivot.
Shortly after completing law school, I started working in the Office of General Counsel at the University of Utah. While researching novel issues of law that arise on campus, I fell in love with the work. The legal and policy issues were unique and interesting; my colleagues were brilliant and kind; and my clients cared deeply about the promise of higher education and academic medicine. I knew this is where I wanted to be.
The rest is history. I spent the next 12 years working primarily on health law and health policy matters at the university and was appointed Chief Health Policy Officer for University of Utah Health in July 2024.
My Job as Chief Health Policy Officer
As Chief Health Policy Officer, my job is to help navigate state health policies and policy processes, with a particular focus on the legislative process. I do that in collaboration and coordination with the Vice President for Government Relations. I act as the point person for health sciences on legislative issues and assist in communicating to constituents about policy matters.
When the Utah Legislature is in session, I review all the bills that are publicly released or shared with the university. My job is to determine if a bill impacts the university, and, if so, how. Does it help advance the missions of U of U Health? Can we offer suggestions to strengthen the bill, address concerns, or propose an alternative solution that meets the goals of the bill sponsor and the university?
I also collaborate with the government relations team to respond to questions from lawmakers and their staff, identify subject matter experts to assist lawmakers, and serve as a resource for our teams as they engage in that work.
Acting as a “Translator”
I spend a meaningful portion of my day as a translator. I translate complex laws and regulations into understandable concepts and actionable items for university leaders.
I also translate proposed health policies into stories of impact on real people in our community. Health care is complex. Providing policymakers with real-life examples of the impact of a proposed policy helps break down that complexity. It also helps keep our focus where it should be—on people.
It’s All About the People
Meeting with our teams and learning about the innovative and life-changing work they do for the university, our state, and beyond is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job.
We have an incredibly deep bench of highly skilled and capable individuals at U of U Health. I’ll pick our team over any other any day of the week. If there is an issue a lawmaker is working on, we almost certainly have someone within our academic health system who has expertise in that area.
President Randall’s vision of being a university with unsurpassed societal impact isn’t just an aspirational goal. It’s rooted in knowing we have the best and brightest people on our team. Our people discover the underlying causes for disease and new cures. They perform life-saving operations on the tiniest of humans. They inspire students to innovate new solutions to long-standing problems.
Our people are our strength. They make us great.
The Challenges Ahead
Together, we can solve big challenges. And our state has big health care challenges to solve. We must continue to support and grow our health care workforce.
We need to continue to bend the cost curve while addressing the reality that provider reimbursement is lagging far behind the cost of practicing medicine. We need to address the social determinants, or non-medical factors, that influence health outcomes.
We have a lot of work to do. Our teams may wonder how to do this in light of the significant policy changes recently announced by our federal and state leaders. These changes impact health care, higher education, research, immigration, the economy, and nearly every aspect of our work and our lives.
Policy changes are not unusual. That’s what policymakers do. What’s unusual is the scope, velocity, and significance of the policy changes. It feels unprecedented. That causes anxiety and uncertainty about what’s ahead.
Giving Oxygen to Hope
It’s hard to give oxygen to hope with so much uncertainty. But we should not despair.
We are in a position to help and lead. If you look back at all the challenges we’ve faced—including COVID-19 and the Great Recession—our university and community are incredibly resilient. We’ve confronted the greatest challenges time and time again. And we’re well-suited to do so moving forward.
My life has been a story of embracing uncertainty, having hope, and simply doing the best that I can under the circumstances. And that’s taught me something that’s true for people and universities alike: If you have grit and work hard, recognize that sometimes things go wrong, express appreciation and gratitude, assume good intentions, and stay true to your values, things tend to work out.
As long as we remember that and do the hard work, we’re going to be okay.
