John M. Samuels, MPH

For more than 20 years, John Samuels served as a senior healthcare leader in top New York City hospitals, including Northwell Health and Mount Sinai Beth Israel. He sat at the helm of a system that touched nearly 700,000 lives per year. During his hospital tenure, John was responsible for the operations of 16 emergency departments and a vast network of urgent care centers. To provide better care for patients, he used an improvement science approach to enhance systems and processes.

John trained with FEMA in emergency preparedness at the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Alabama and headed up the emergency preparedness program at Mount Sinai Beth Israel during Hurricane Sandy and other disasters. In a complex, stressful, and high-stakes setting, John was able to create order out of chaos—and he saw the opportunity to do the same for individuals struggling to secure great healthcare.

In 2016, he founded Better Health Advisors, an independent healthcare advisory firm, to share the expertise he developed as a healthcare insider with members of the public. Many people find the healthcare system frightening and overwhelming, and the BHA team ensures they don't have to face it alone.

John earned his Masters of Public Health from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and graduated from the Academy of Healthcare Leadership Advancement at Cornell University. He is a licensed nursing home administrator in New York and New Jersey. John is also on the board of directors for Mary McDowell Friends Academy, the Phillips School of Nursing at Mount Sinai Medical Center, and the Sepsis Alliance. In 2020, Empire BlueCross BlueShield honored John with a Whole Health Heroes Award for his work with the community during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, he was named to the Forbes Next 1000 list.