Welcome Our Newest Member - Chet Hewitt

Chet P. Hewitt is the President and CEO of Sierra Health Foundation in Sacramento, CA. Since joining the foundation in 2007, Chet has focused foundation investments on efforts that address the social determinants of health.  To initiate this work, he instituted new policy, public education, responsive and community health clinic grant programs. He has developed funding partnerships with national and statewide funders that have extended Sierra Health’s reach, reputation and impact.

Before joining Sierra Health, Chet served as the director of the Alameda County Social Services Agency, an integrated human services in one of the largest counties in California. While in Alameda, he was known as “The People’s Director” for his commitment to underserved populations. Chet’s leadership resulted in the agency receiving numerous local, state and national awards for its use of technology, child welfare reforms, and increasing enrollment in subsidized and health programs.

Prior to his work in Alameda, Chet served as an associate director with the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) in New York where he designed the foundation’s community building program and managed the foundation’s west coast office in San Francisco and oversaw its partnership with The California Endowment. Previously he was the founding director of the Detention Diversion Advocacy Project at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco.

Chet has received a number of awards including an Annie E. Casey Child and Families Leaders fellowship, and the 2009 Black Child Welfare Administrator of the Year award. Born and raised in New York City, Chet credits life experience as the source of his commitment to work in service of those less fortunate than himself. The sixth of eight children, a cyclist, aspiring gardener, a retired trumpet player & football pass interception record holder, Chet serves on national and local boards including Grantmakers in Health, Social Interest Solutions, Valley Vision, and the Sacramento Foundation. Chet and his wife Laura are the proud parents of two boys, Chet II and Stephan. Chet and his family enjoy travelling to warm tropical places in the spirit of his grandparents who immigrated from Barbados.