United States
Chris DeMarco most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) serving nearly 20,000 patients in the area east of Washington, DC. He has served on the board of Baltimore Medical System (FQHC) and on the board of the Behavioral Health Leadership Institute, a substance use treatment organization. Additionally, he volunteered for many years with The Family Tree of Maryland. At his previous health center, DeMarco drove significant growth through strategic initiatives and cultural transformation. Under his leadership, the organization added five new sites within three years, increased staff by 8%, improved operating margin to 7.5% in the last six months, and grew gross revenue by 12.5% over the prior year. He secured over $7 million in new funding for the 43,000-square-foot Capitol Heights project. In 2025, he spearheaded a legislative change in Maryland that enabled all state health centers to use funds for land acquisition. DeMarco brings more than 30 years of experience in medical, behavioral, and mental health fields, complemented by for-profit consulting expertise. He has led ambulatory care organizations and managed strategic partnerships with hospitals and government agencies. His extensive background includes both operational roles and consulting work with Federally Qualified Health Centers. Earlier in his career, DeMarco worked at a for-profit healthcare consulting firm where he led research and managed diverse projects for private practices, venture capital and private equity firms, Fortune 500 companies, and nonprofit organizations. He has authored over a dozen articles across a wide range of healthcare topics. Goals: Drive organizational growth, improve patient outcomes, increase revenue and cost efficiency, enhance return on investment, and maximize stakeholder value. Specialties: Enterprise and program startups and reboots; research, white papers, and grant projects; clinical and operational quality improvement; risk management and compliance; leadership development; government and foundation funding; and healthcare ethics.
Research leader at a strategic consulting firm that accelerates commercial success for growth-minded healthcare organizations to achieve profitable, sustainable growth through deep domain expertise and an uncommon ability to blend research, strategy and marketing. Our singular aim is value creation. Areas of recent focus include thought leadership; market-related quantitative and qualitative research; strategic planning; business planning; program start-up; and grant acquisition. Other focus areas have included clinical and administrative continuous quality improvement; risk management strategy and planning; design, government approval, and building of medical and dental clinics; staff leadership; electronic health record (EHR) selection; remote cardiac monitoring; analytics; and CHNA.
Improved health care delivery organization business outcomes by providing consultation on a wide variety of areas including business plan development, strategic planning preparation, and market data analysis. Conducted research and analysis needed for grant applications and management. Advised established and start-up delivery organizations and programs through stages of acquiring funding, structuring organizations, and measuring organizational outcomes as well as quality improvement/risk management planning, and policy planning.