Barbara Petee
Bio
Barbara Petee is the Chief Advocacy and Government Relations Officer for ProMedica, a non-profit health system based in Toledo, Ohio serving northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, and also serves as Executive Director of The Root Cause Coalition.
With ProMedica’s specific interest and emphasis on community advocacy and economic development, Mrs. Petee is responsible for connecting organizations and agencies in collaborative work so that the mission of ProMedica – to ensure health and well-being for all–is achieved. With the system’s commitment to address the social determinants of health, Petee’s work is currently focused on ensuring access to the most basic human needs for all individuals.
Guided by Petee since 2006, ProMedica’s work in the social determinants of health has been used as a model within the industry and hailed among other NGOs as groundbreaking for health systems. In October of 2015, ProMedica and the AARP Foundation partnered to form The Root Cause Coalition, a national coalition focused on more broadly engaging the health care industry to work on the social determinants through advocacy, education and research. The Coalition now has nearly 60 members from across the nation.
In her government relations role, Petee works with lawmakers at the local, state and federal level, to ensure that ProMedica is consistently involved in helping to shape and provide input on key policy and legislative issues that affect the health system and the communities it serves.
Petee has held numerous roles in her 30-year tenure with ProMedica, including Chief Communications and Public Affairs Officer. She serves on many local, regional and national boards and committees, including serving as a board member of the Alliance to End Hunger, an affiliate of Bread for the World, based in Washington D.C. as well as WGTE Public Media, a PBS affiliate serving northwest Ohio.
A 1984 graduate of MSU, Petee has been married to her husband, Tim, for 28 years and they have two grown children, Madeline and Andrew.