Karma Bass

Karma Bass is president and CEO of Alliance Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the greater San Diego region’s community partner for improving access to health care for its poor and vulnerable communities. Through advocacy, education, and collaborative grantmaking, Alliance Healthcare Foundation advances their principle belief that everyone has the right to quality, timely and effective health care. In her role as CEO, Ms. Bass has restructured AHF, better positioning the organization to respond to current and anticipated community needs. Philosophically, Ms. Bass has also led the foundation in a new direction. Under her leadership, AHF has developed a strategic focus on leveraging technology to find innovative solutions to entrenched health care delivery system problems.

Over the past 20 years, Ms. Bass has developed extensive experience and expertise in the issues surrounding access to health care for the underserved. Prior to joining Alliance Healthcare Foundation, Ms. Bass was Senior Research Executive at The Governance Institute, a San Diego firm focused on educating and training hospital boards of directors across the country. In her 10 years at The Governance Institute, she consulted with CEOs and board leaders to identify best practices in the field and translate them into educational tools that could be adopted across the healthcare industry. Ms. Bass has written, lectured, and consulted on policy and governance matters to national audiences of healthcare CEOs and board leaders. 

Prior to The Governance Institute, Ms. Bass was director of Program Development at the Hospital Association of San Diego & Imperial Counties where she managed the Community Health Improvement Partners collaborative. Ms. Bass is board-certified in healthcare management and holds a master’s degree in public health with a focus in health services administration from San Diego State University. Ms. Bass is the mother of two young children, ages 7 and 2, and resides in Carlsbad with her family.