Dr. Maia Hightower, MD, MPH, MBA is the CEO and Founder of Equality AI, and is the Associate CMIO and Sr. Director Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for The University of Utah Health. She is the former CMIO at the University of Utah and former CMIO and Chief Population Health Officer at University of Iowa Healthcare.
Dr. Hightower is an expert and a nationally sought speaker in Responsible AI and the intersection of digital technology with health equity, diversity and inclusion. She strives to ensure that the value from digital transformation of healthcare is equitable across all stakeholders, including our most vulnerable.
She is the CEO and Founder of Equality AI, an early-stage healthcare tech startup developing a responsible AI toolkit and AI business intelligence platform that monitors algorithms for performance, bias and outcomes.
Dr. Hightower is a champion for health equity, diversity, and inclusion awareness and initiatives. She developed the Healthcare IT Equity Maturity Model (HITEM) to dismantle structural bias hardwired in healthcare IT and develop an inclusive and equity minded healthcare IT culture. Dr. Hightower is recognized by Health Data Management as one of the “Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT” and “25 leading CMIOs at healthcare organizations,” and by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of “50 hospital and health system CMIOs to know”.
Dr. Hightower received her Medical Degree, as well as a Master of Public Health, from the University Of Rochester School Of Medicine, followed by residencies in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego. She also holds an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.