Pooja Bhalla

Pooja Bhalla, DNP, RN

Chief Executive Officer

Pooja Bhalla leads Illumination Foundation’s integrated system of housing and healthcare, an advanced approach to addressing the needs of adults, children, and families experiencing homelessness. Her innovative work includes the creation of IFMG, a private medical group which provides onsite medical and mental health services for Illumination Foundation clients; partnering with CHOC to provide primary care and behavioral health counseling to children experiencing homelessness; expanding Illumination Foundation’s recuperative care program, including creating a female-only recuperative care facility; and spearheading the development of an electronic health record system which uses clinical data and machine learning to generate diagnostic risk scores that can be used to tailor the level of services provided to client needs.

Pooja joined Illumination Foundation in 2017 as Chief Operating Officer, where she directed program operations, development, housing, and implementation of client services. She subsequently became Executive Director of Healthcare Services, where she focused on the complex issue of health equity in order to improve quality outcomes and reduce health disparities among those experiencing homelessness. She had previously worked for Boston Health Care Homeless Program, leading that organization’s efforts in establishing shelter medical clinics throughout Boston.

Pooja sits on the Board of Directors for the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, an organization she has belonged to since 2002. She is a member of Adaptive Business Leaders, the Orange County Homeless Death Review Committee, the Family Solutions Collaborative, the Los Angeles Recuperative Care Learning Network, the California Health Care Foundation, and the American Organization of Nurse Executives. She is a graduate of UCLA’s Johnson & Johnson Health Care Executive Program.

Pooja earned her doctoral degree in Nursing Practice at Northeastern University; received her master’s degree in Leadership, Health Policy and Nursing Administration from Northeastern University; and is a graduate of Simmons College of Nursing. Her published articles include “Leadership Development Program for Nurses at a Health Care for the Homeless Program: An Educational Intervention,” published in the Journal of Community Health Nursing; and “CIT [Care, Innovation and Transformation] Project: Creating Innovations in Care for the Homeless in an Outpatient Clinic,” published in AONE: The Voice of Nursing Leadership.