Dohmen Company Foundation Names Rachel Roller President and CEO and Commits to Eliminating Diet-Related Disease

MILWAUKEE, Sept. 27, 2022  -- Dohmen Company Foundation Chairperson Cynthia LaConte today announced the appointment of Rachel Roller as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Foundation.

"Rachel has devoted her career to improving the health of our community. Her experience as a health system executive and a transformational community health leader combined with her personal commitment to Dohmen's vision of life without diet related disease, makes Rachel the ideal leader to optimize our Foundation's impact," said LaConte.

"It is a great privilege to lead an innovative healthcare organization that had the courage to transform its focus from treatment to prevention," said Roller. "I have witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of diet-related disease on individuals and families, especially those in greatest need. The healthy food and nutrition education solutions being advanced by the Dohmen Company Foundation are clinically validated as the most efficient and effective preventive health interventions."

Before joining the Foundation, Rachel held several leadership positions, including founding a successful consulting practice dedicated to addressing health disparities, serving as a senior executive for the nation's fifth largest integrated health system, and as a public servant in several leadership capacities. A seasoned healthcare strategist focused on health equity, she has advanced P3 partnerships that have successfully broadened access to health care for economically disadvantaged populations.

Kathy Koshgarian, former President of the Dohmen Company Foundation, has assumed a new leadership role as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Food Benefit Company, as well as Food For Health, a public charity; both of which were created and funded by the Foundation.

LaConte also announced today the bold new vision of the Foundation: 'life without diet-related disease.' According to the federal government, diet quality is now the leading risk factor for death in the U.S. In addition to costing the US economy trillions each year in direct health care spending and lost productivity, it's estimated that nearly 678,000 Americans die annually from preventable, lifestyle related disease1.

"Since 1858, we've been unapologetic about disrupting the status quo in order to improve our nation's health," said LaConte. "The current health system is focused on treatment not prevention. Today, we believe the solution to America's most pressing health risk is surprisingly simple. Its food. The very thing that is making us sick can become our prescription for health," said LaConte.

"The Foundation is committed to investing resources to systemically improve the health of our nation by increasing access to healthy food and nutrition education through our philanthropic enterprise and by strengthening the nutrition ecosystem via our charitable giving," said Roller.

1.Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, "https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-compare/" Center for Science in the Public Interest, 2022, date of access 9/26/22