CaringBridge Welcomes Tia Newcomer as New CEO
Eagan, Minn. (June 10, 2021)—The board of directors is pleased to announce that it has appointed Tia Newcomer as the new CaringBridge Chief Executive Officer (CEO). She succeeds Liwanag Ojala, who completes her tenure on June 30, after nearly seven years of record-setting impact. Newcomer’s strengths in healthcare leadership, digital technology, and her track record of building and creating great cultures and purpose-driven brands will help take CaringBridge to the next stage of growth, continuing to build on the vision of a world where no one goes on a health journey alone.
Newcomer has served in executive leadership roles at Kindara, a digital platform creating a community for women to take ownership of their health outcomes, and health organizations including Generate Life Sciences and Prelude Fertility. She has a proven record of driving growth through best-in-class customer experience, supported by scalable technology platforms at direct-to-consumer focused companies including Revlon, Frito Lay and Hewlett-Packard. Newcomer also serves as a board member and advisor for community-based and healthcare organizations in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.
“I believe passionately in the vision of CaringBridge—that no one should go through a health journey alone,” Newcomer said. “And I am excited to lead the team in finding the next opportunities for growth that will exponentially help more families with their health journeys, building on the 24-year CaringBridge legacy.”
Board chair Jodi Hubler said, “Our board of directors is thrilled to introduce a leader of Tia’s caliber into our community.”
Newcomer is the third CaringBridge CEO since its launch in 1997, following Ojala, who made a personal decision to transition from leading CaringBridge, and founder Sona Mehring, who retired in 2016. Mehring said, “I started CaringBridge with a single website to support friends during a difficult pregnancy. A quarter-century later, 43 million people use CaringBridge each year. What a testament to the power of love, hope and compassion.” She said she is excited to see Newcomer take CaringBridge to the next stages as a place of help and healing.
In 2020, with the pandemic separating patients from their loved ones—directly or indirectly because of COVID-19—the global platform of CaringBridge kept families connected and provided meaningful social support at a time of unprecedented need. It was a year in which CaringBridge also received its strongest donor-support ever—a 26 percent increase in the number of gifts in 2020. This enabled technology enhancements to provide care-coordination tools, outreach to healthcare and long-term care facilities where CaringBridge could help reduce the devastating effects of isolation, and continued research to help patients and families find their paths toward healing.
About CaringBridge
CaringBridge is a nonprofit social network that helps people connect with family and friends during a health journey. Founded in Eagan, Minnesota in 1997 by Sona Mehring, CaringBridge has made it simple and safe to offer or ask for support when it’s needed most. With nearly 300,000 active daily users—CaringBridge offers simple tools for patients and their caregivers to share health updates and rally their community’s support. A health journey of any kind—diagnosis, injury, medical or behavioral illness, pregnancy complications or other experiences—is difficult to endure alone. CaringBridge is here to ensure that no one goes through a health journey alone. Learn more at www.CaringBridge.org.
Media Contact
Katrina Wallmeyer
651-789-3735
CaringBridge CEO Media Images
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