Thomas J. Villa is an accomplished leader, innovator and seasoned business executive who works with organizations to hire, train and lead high-performing teams to implement their vision. Tom believes the key to sustained performance is to combine values-based leadership with engaged, committed and empowered employees.
Tom has well-established skills in business start-up, turnaround, and strategic change as evidenced by the award-winning teams he has built across multiple disciplines including healthcare services, education management and military service. While working with DIANON Systems, Inc., Tom helped build this biotechnology start-up through IPO into a leading national provider of cancer diagnostics, anatomic and molecular pathology services. Tom also co-created the CarePathTM Health Information Service to provide personalized, diagnosis-specific information to cancer-treating physicians and their patients at critical moments in the healthcare process to help patients better understand their disease, physicians to better treat disease, and health plans to better coordinate care.
Tom holds a Bachelor of Science degree in International Relations from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and is currently earning a Master of Science degree in Leadership from Walden University. Tom is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives, the NIH Precision Medicine InitiativeTM pilot group, and the District of Columbia Community Advisory Board to the Martin Delaney BELIEVE in the Cure Collaboratory. He also has experience as a family caregiver and as a clinical trials participant. Tom continues his lifelong participation in community service with a special focus on enhancing health outcomes for underserved and vulnerable populations as well as for enhancing opportunity for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Tom believes in the healing power of the arts, especially that of storytelling. He is a practicing writer (business and scholarly writing; creative nonfiction, memoir, poetry, and family history), and member of The Writer’s Center (Bethesda, MD) and OutWrite author’s group (Washington, DC). Tom lives in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC and enjoys spending time with friends and family, including his four grown children.