Darlene Oliver Hightower, JD, vice president of community health equity at Rush University Medical Center, is responsible for a team of 50 staff who oversee the implementation and evaluation of community programs aimed at improving the health of individuals in Rush’s community areas. She oversees the Office of Community Health Equity and Engagement, which includes three school-based health clinics and the Adolescent Family Center; community benefit reporting; Rush’s cradle-to-career healthcare pipeline programs; and Affirm: The Rush Center for Gender, Sexuality and Reproductive Health. Hightower is a member of the senior leadership team for West Side United—a cross-sector, collective impact collaborative aimed at improving health and economic vitality on Chicago’s West Side—and serves as co-chair of the Racial Justice Action Committee which is a systemwide initiative aimed at advancing social and racial justice at Rush.

Prior to joining Rush, Hightower was national vice president of programs for Public Allies, Inc. She has served as a Chicago Community Trust Leadership Fellow, a University of Chicago Civic Leadership Academy Fellow and an Administrative Law Judge for the Chicago Department of Human Relations. Additionally, she was named a Culture of Health Leader Fellow with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a U.S. News & World Report 2020 Healthcare Hero. Hightower attended Bradley University (graduating with high honors) and received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.