David Gross was placed as the senior vice president for government relations with the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, which represents more than 200 hospitals and health systems. The mission of the IHA is to strengthen and unite hospitals and make high-quality, affordable health care available to all Illinois residents at the right time and in the right setting. The IHA advocates for a redesigned health system and sustainable funding, including new models of healthcare delivery and payment that support the triple aim of health care. The IHA represents the interests of Illinois’s hospitals at the local, state, and national levels, and its Midwest Healthcare Institute provides innovative business and performance solutions, services, and tools, including patient care and quality improvement initiatives and collaboratives, data analytics, purchasing, and insurance services. In his role, David is responsible for leading IHA’s advocacy agenda at the local, state, and federal levels through engagement with IHA members, government staff, and local, state, and federal office holders. He engineers the effective development of policy statements and a process for membership input, serves as the primary spokesperson with elected and appointed officials and relevant regulatory agencies, and interacts with hospital lobbyists to communicate association advocacy positions and encourage collaboration.
David brings to the position experience in the state legislative process; federal, state, and university appropriations; negotiation and conflict resolution and crisis management; media and public relations; strategic planning; and bill analysis, drafting, and tracking. Before joining the IHA, he served as the chief of staff to Illinois Senate President John J. Cullerton for four years. In this role, with oversight of 103 professional staff members, he directed Senate Democratic caucus candidate recruitment and campaign efforts, achieving the election of the largest Senate Democratic caucus in the country. David recruited, hired, and trained qualified minorities, collaborating with Hispanic and Black caucus leadership to create the new staff positions of Spanish language media specialist and minority outreach coordinator. He also initiated major technology improvements, including the implementation of a state-of-the-art constituent relationship management system and a dynamic web- and cloud-based analysis database. David led efforts to expand caucus social media, web design, telephone Town Halls, and e-newsletter marketing efforts, leading to the first-place ranking of his Statehouse caucus for number of Twitter and Facebook followers.
Previously, David served as the executive director for governmental and public affairs for the Southern Illinois University system; as the deputy chief of staff in the Office of the (Illinois) Senate President; as the director of staff operations, a Revenue Committee analyst, and the director of committee staff in the Office of the (Illinois) Senate Minority Leader; and as the director of legislative services, a Labor and Commerce Committee staff analyst, and a legislative services staff member in the Office of the (Illinois) Senate President. He began his career as a district office staff member for Senator Vince Demuzio in Carlinville, Illinois.
David is originally from a small town west of Springfield, Illinois. He completed his bachelor’s degree at Illinois State University and his master’s degree in public administration at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Outside of work, David enjoys running, hiking, playing golf, and keeping up-to-date with local, state, and national politics.
QLK’s Sharman McGurn led the search to recruit David to the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, where he has been in place since October 24, 2016.
