Mitchell Balk is founding president of The Mt. Sinai Health Foundation, a role he assumed upon the sale of Mt. Sinai’s operating assets in 1996.

Mr. Balk was founding board chair of the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, a non-partisan information resource for policymakers, founded by Ohio foundations. He was a major force in the establishment of Senior Transportation Connection of Cuyahoga County, a successful example of regionalism.

In addition to the establishment of the 500-member Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition as well as First Year Cleveland, Cleveland/Cuyahoga County’s infant mortality reduction initiative, Mr. Balk played a key role in bringing Nurse-Family Partnership to Cleveland for the first time and secured operating support for the program from federal MIECHV (Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting) dollars, the first time such funding had been awarded in Cuyahoga County. The program is operated by MetroHealth.

On the national level, Mr. Balk serves on the US Health & Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Advisory Panel on Outreach and Education.  He sits on the National Academies’ Roundtable on Obesity Solutions’ Early Care and Education Innovation Collaborative, a result of Mt. Sinai’s early childhood obesity prevention efforts.

In 2017, Mr. Balk and Mt. Sinai were the recipients of the Case Western Reserve University President’s Award for Visionary Achievement. He is the recipient of the Philanthropy Award from the Otis Moss, Jr. – University Hospitals Medical Center and the Five-Star General Award from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. He is a graduate of Leadership Cleveland, Class of 2001.