Shelley Lyford

Shelley Lyford is CEO and Chair of the West Health Institute and CEO, Chair and Trustee of the Gary and Mary West Foundation, a private foundation that has awarded more than $550 million in grants for aging and healthcare programs and initiatives since its inception in 2006. Lyford has been with the organization for nearly two decades and has been serving as its CEO since 2012.

West Health is a family of nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations including the Gary and Mary West Foundation and the West Health Institute, in San Diego, CA and the West Health Policy Center in Washington, DC. Solely funded by entrepreneurs and philanthropists Gary and Mary West, West Health is dedicated to lowering healthcare costs to enable older adults to successfully age in place with access to high-quality, affordable health and support services that preserve and protect their dignity, quality of life and independence.

Key initiatives under Lyford’s leadership include the creation of the West Health Accelerator at Mass General Brigham, a $16.4 million, multi-year effort to help transform care for older adults in the hospital and the West Health Accelerator at Northwestern Medicine, which integrates behavioral health services into primary care settings to promote earlier intervention and increase access to care. The West Health Accelerator is creating scalable blueprints for adoption by other health systems and hospitals throughout the nation to transform the future of healthcare.

West Health is also a driving force behind the rise in the creation and accreditations of geriatric emergency departments in the U.S. and the establishment of the Gary and Mary West Senior Emergency Care Unit at UC San Diego Health, California’s first nationally accredited, senior-specific emergency department.

In 2019, Lyford was appointed as a commissioner on the California Commission on Aging, advising the state’s governor and legislature, along with federal, state and local agencies, on issues, policies and regulations that affect California’s seniors. Subsequently she was appointed to California’s Master Plan for Aging Stakeholder Advisory Committee. Prior to these appointments, Lyford played a critical role in launching a statewide public awareness campaign called “We Stand With Seniors,” which brought aging to the forefront of the 2018 California gubernatorial race and led to the creation of California’s first Master Plan for Aging. West Health continues to support the development of multi-sector plans for aging in more than 20 other states. In 2022, Lyford received the prestigious American Society on Aging Award for outstanding contributions to aging-related research, administration and advocacy.

Under Lyford’s direction, the Gary and Mary West Foundation was one of 10 founding organizations that launched Civica Rx, the nation’s first not-for-profit generic drug company created to address generic drug shortages and lower the high prices of lifesaving medications. Lyford continues to safeguard the company’s not-for-profit social welfare mission by serving as vice-chair of the board of directors. She is also director of the Civica Foundation, which fosters philanthropic support to manufacture and distribute affordable generic medications, and acts as an advisor to Civica Scripts, an organization dedicated to bringing lower-cost generic medicines directly to consumers in hospital or retail pharmacies.  Lyford serves as a director on several other Boards including the San Diego Economic Development Corporation Board and the Community Board of UC San Diego Health.

Lyford holds a master’s degree in international relations and political economy from the University of San Diego. She grew up on a dairy farm in Vermont and resides in Encinitas, CA. An avid outdoorswoman, traveler, and sports enthusiast, she was a nationally recognized college athlete.