Ms. Gayle Olano Hurt is currently the District of Columbia Hospital Association (DCHA) Vice President, Patient Safety and Quality Operations and the Executive Program Director for the District of Columbia Perinatal Quality Collaborative (DCPQC) where engaging hospital and community leaders, partners, association members, and teams to drive collaboration and improve outcomes inspires her every day. Among the collaborative efforts underway, she provides executive leadership for quality collaboratives, equity collaborative, behavioral health, substance use, information exchange activities, DCPQC and the DCHA data analytics platform. In addition, she serves on multiple District committees and workgroups providing advocacy and expertise to support member priorities aimed at improving quality of care, patient safety and healthcare outcomes. These activities bring together coalitions of leaders and stakeholders to address quality improvement, health equity and patient safety in the District through coordinated action.

Ms. Olano Hurt also provides education on healthcare quality and patient safety related topics in a variety of settings. She has worked with interdisciplinary teams in over 200 healthcare organizations across the country on improvement activities, during over 25 years in healthcare quality and patient safety roles. She has also served in several roles with professional association boards including as the President of Maryland Association of Healthcare Quality (MAHQ) and in several team leadership positions with the National Association of Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) where roles included chairing the CPHQ Test Development Team and Exam Item Writing Workgroup. She holds a master’s in public administration along with maintaining certifications as a healthcare quality professional and in product management.