The Dohmen Company Foundation has named Rachel Roller as its new president and chief executive officer.
Roller takes the helm at the Milwaukee-based foundation two years after launching Laine Strategies, a consulting practice dedicated to addressing health disparities. Prior to that, she served in various senior leadership roles at Aurora Health Care and Advocate Aurora Health. Cynthia LaConte, chair of the Dohmen Company Foundation, announced the appointment Tuesday.
Roller succeeds former president Kathy Koshgarian, who recently assumed a new role as president and CEO of The Food Benefit Co. and Food For Health, entities that were created and are funded by the Dohmen Company Foundation. Koshgarian helped facilitate Dohmen Co.’s 2019 conversion from a six-generation family-owned business into a foundation-owned philanthropic enterprise. Under that structure, the company’s profits are donated to the foundation for charitable purposes.
Central to Dohmen’s current strategy is the belief that food is a key preventative medical intervention. LaConte on Tuesday also announced the foundation’s new vision: “Life without diet-related disease.”
“Rachel has devoted her career to improving the health of our community,” said LaConte. “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.”
Diet quality is now the leading risk factor for death in the U.S. In addition to costing the U.S. 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 disease, according to a news release that cited the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
“It is a great privilege to lead an innovative health care 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.”
The Dohmen Company Foundation is headquartered at 2007 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Milwaukee. The nonprofit moved into the 34,000-square-foot former Fein Brothers Building earlier this year from its previous location in the Historic Third Ward.
