Elaine Batchlor, MD, MPH, is the Chief Executive Officer of MLK Community Healthcare, a health system that includes a state-of-the-art private safety net hospital, the MLK Community Medical Group, community and population health programs, and a fundraising foundation. Dr. Batchlor’s innovative work to increase access to quality healthcare for underserved populations has been recognized nationally, earning her membership in the prestigious National Academy of Medicine, an academy committed to advancing science and health equity.
Before assuming leadership of MLK Community Healthcare, Dr. Batchlor served as Chief Medical Officer of L.A. Care Health Plan, the nation’s largest public health plan providing care for a safety net population. She has also served as Vice President at the California Health Care Foundation, where she developed and oversaw research, policy analysis, and programs aimed at improving health care financing and delivery in California. Early in her career, Dr. Batchlor served as Medical Director for the Los Angeles County Office of Managed Care and as a Chief Medical Officer for Prudential Health Care.
As a thought leader in the healthcare industry, Dr. Batchlor is a member of the Zetema Project, a group of national health experts focused on improving policy and business decisions in the US healthcare system. In 2019 Dr. Batchlor was recognized as an Irvine Foundation California Leader. She was appointed by Governor Newsom as a University of California Regent in 2022.
Dr. Batchlor is a member of the Board of Directors of the California Hospital Association, as well as The Integrated Healthcare Association and Insure the Uninsured Project. She serves on the Health Affairs Editorial Board and is an Advisory Board member for the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the Hospital Quality Institute. A Harvard alumna, Dr. Batchlor serves the university as an interviewer for the Los Angeles area.
Dr. Batchlor holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University, a Masters of Public Health from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Doctorate of Medicine from Case Western Reserve University. She is board-certified in both internal medicine and rheumatology.
Dr. Batchlor is the proud mother of twin sons who are completing their undergraduate degrees. She is married to a criminal defense attorney who works for the Los Angeles County Public Defender.
Excellence is our top priority
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Our Hall of Fame CEO
Dr. Elaine Batchlor, CEO of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital, has earned accolades from her peers in recognition of her decades of dedicated work improving the quality of care for South Los Angeles.
In 2019 she won the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award, which honors “innovative, effective leaders whose breakthrough solutions to critical state challenges improve people’s lives, create opportunity, and contribute to a better California,” according to the foundation. In the same year, she was nominated to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors in the field of health and medicine.
In California, Batchlor makes regular appearances on the LA Business Journal's LA500 list, which honors the most influential leaders and executives in Los Angeles, as well as Becker's lists of top women leaders in health care. Becker's is the preeminent publication for the hospital industry.
Dr. Batchlor has twice been the commencement speaker at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, is a member of the Zetema Project, won the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Association of Black Women Physicians (ABWP) and received the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Dr. Lester Breslow Lifetime Achievement Award. UCLA also inducted her into their Alumni Hall of Fame.
Dr. Batchlor is a strong advocate for health equity in state, national and international media. Most recently she discussed our "separate and unequal" US health system in the Milken Foundation's "Power of Ideas" and also appeared in a TED X talk on health disparities.