Ellie Zambrano, MSW, LICSW

Associate Principal

Health Management Associates

Boston, MA

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Ellie Zambrano is a licensed social worker with two decades of leadership in both the public and private sector. She has extensive experience working with nonprofit organizations, emphasizing strategic planning and operations, workforce and talent development, change management, and impact development. Her work has focused on community organizing, policy advocacy, and equity and inclusion.

Before joining Health Management Associates, Ellie was executive director of the Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health (CISWH) at the Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW). In this role, she worked closely with the BUSSW dean and the CISWH center director to carry out CISWH’s mission, building capacity for research and development and expanding global partnerships. Ellie also worked with faculty to plan, develop, organize, and oversee implementation of strategic initiatives, programs, and projects.

Ellie has a track record of driving innovation and advancement while developing behavioral health programs and leading their strategic and operational implementation. Previously in her career, Ellie managed the nonprofit Bay Cove Human Services’ Medicaid statewide expansion startup program. Her experience consulting and building health care integration programs includes supporting and launching transdisciplinary complex care teams at Lynn Community Health Center and Community Care Partners at Bay Cove.

With CISWH, Ellie convened faculty and led grant proposal planning sessions to formulate interdisciplinary and cross-sector approaches to address health equity. While at Family Continuity Programs, Inc., she co-led the Massachusetts Child Trauma Project (MCTP), a child welfare collaboration with the Department of Children and Families designed to improve well-being and permanency outcomes for children with complex trauma in state care. The project later became a statewide training initiative for clinicians and organizations serving children and families throughout the state. 

To advance social work roles in healthcare and public health, Ellie has developed strategic partnerships and collaborations throughout her career. She has worked with community organizations, state agencies, insurance programs, human services organizations, and healthcare entities including accountable care organizations, managed care organizations, hospital systems and primary care practices. These relationships have resulted in new integrated care delivery systems, local and national policy development, and advocacy for health equity.

A visionary leader, Ellie has furthered health equity, social justice and anti-racist values in healthcare practices and human services organizations nationally and globally. She is committed to education, research and promoting justice-based principles. In practice, Ellie has established and institutionalized training and professional development initiatives, taught as an adjunct professor, organized events, and overseen outreach efforts. She is a skilled communicator with experience translating research into accessible reports tailored to specific audiences, stakeholders or the public.

Ellie is a licensed independent clinical social worker (LICSW) in Massachusetts, where she treats couples and families in private practice. She has trained and practiced direct clinical care in outpatient, home-based and crisis intervention services for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their caregivers. In her early career, she was a senior leader at YAI Center for Specialty Therapy in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens.

Ellie has served on numerous boards, groups and coalitions during her career, leveraging her expertise and advocacy values. She currently serves on the National Policy Development Group, focusing on voter access policy development to support those most impacted by health systems and engage healthcare professionals to be part of health policy advocacy. She is also a member of the National Coalition for Social Work and Health, the Alliance for Community Health Integration, and a local trust fund board focused on health and housing.

Ellie earned her master’s degree in social work from Columbia University and her bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary social sciences from State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY). Ellie is bilingual, fluent in both English and Spanish.

An Ecuadorian American, Ellie loves to travel. She especially enjoys visiting Ecuador and spending time by the ocean with family.