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 meet kussy mackenzie

Kussy Mackenzie, MSc - Principal

 

Pivot First Consulting & Management was founded by Kussy Mackenzie, a first-generation American and indigenous West African. She has 18 years of public health experience, working and advocating for human rights, reproductive health, and economic justice for youth and adults in the United States, Liberia, and Guinea.

Kussy has a unique understanding of community-based provider needs, because she has been a community-based provider, serving home-bound clients as a full-time home health aide. In addition, she ran her own accredited home health agency which provided home care and nursing services to medically complex Medicaid clients. In addition to understanding the physical and emotional aspects of health care delivery, she has a strong healthcare business acumen, leading operations for her family’s accredited nursing assistant training facility for five years.

She is a proponent of healthcare access for all, leading hospital and clinic-based operations leaders through implementing standardized, principled, and equitable policy and practice changes to ensure patient complexity and care were aligned. She has facilitated the removal of barriers to specialty care through referral process optimization and patient repatriation workflow design.  Kussy’s analytical skills have been applied to process and outcome evaluation as well as producing policy impact analysis on federal, state, and regional legislation for critical decision making.

She believes that underrepresented and marginalized people are experts and hold deep knowledge about what ills their families and community as well as what is needed to address acute and systemic issues. Kussy has a talent for helping clients navigate complex and bureaucratic systems of health care delivery to define and realize visions for community and organizational wellness.

Kussy is a servant leader that applies her expertise in business intelligence, health equity, strategy, and project management to support clients in their change management journey.

  • “Kussy Mackenzie has worked with us on several initiatives to reduce disparities in healthcare for Medi-Cal patients. Kussy was instrumental in developing strategic approaches to address health inequities, focusing on creating equitable access to specialty care. Recognizing that actual systems change requires more than siloed efforts, Kussy spearheaded initiatives to address social determinants of health to improve patient outcomes and remove barriers patients were encountering accessing specialty care. Kussy encouraged all stakeholders to reflect on their practices and identify areas where they could advance health equity. This method promoted a spirit of continuous improvement and adaptability among the teams she worked with. By working closely with leadership, patients, and care teams, Kussy fostered a culture of inclusivity and accountability. This culture ensured that all team members were aligned and committed to delivering the highest quality of care to all patients, regardless of their backgrounds. Kussy's leadership was vital in creating the UC San Diego Health Disparities and Inequities Taskforce, a key component of the UC San Diego Anti-Racism Task Force. This task force identified areas for improvement and implemented actionable strategies, ensuring coordinated efforts across teams to provide more equitable care to our patients. Kussy’s dedication to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion is unparalleled and it was an absolute pleasure to work with her and learn from her.”

    Shivon Carreño, Health Justice and Equity Implementation Coach, University of California San Diego Health