Elizabeth Coté MD,MPA
Leadership & Anesthesiology
Elizabeth A. Coté, MD, MPA, serves as Operation Smile’s Senior Vice President of Global Medical Education. Her career has focused on expanding health access and improving health systems at home and abroad.
She is an Aspen Institute Health Innovator Fellow. Previously, she was President of a health tech startup that improved health and economic equity among the U.S. population covered by employer-based health insurance. Before that, she was the Chief Health Officer at the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality, where she focused on reducing health disparities and oversaw multimillion-dollar pediatric health improvement projects.
Elizabeth’s previous roles include serving as the clinical director and primary physician for a rural indigenous American community; managing the collection of health indicators across over 20 countries as an official at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris; aiding in the rebuilding of the Iraqi Ministry of Health as a Special Assistant at the U.S. Department of Defense, working closely the Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius during implementation of the Affordable Care Act and filling an international diplomatic role for the U.S. Department of State.
Elizabeth’s contributions have been recognized by the Aspen Health Innovator Fellowship, the McNulty Foundation Global Response Fund Award, the U.S. Indian Health Service Clinical Innovation Award, the White House Fellowship, The Dean’s Community Service Award from Harvard Medical School, the Zuckerman Fellowship from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Joint Civilian Service Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Elizabeth earned her bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College, her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and her master’s degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. After a pediatric internship at Massachusetts General Hospital, she in trained in Anesthesia at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
