Jill S. Bassett, M.S. is Founder and Principal of Biscayne + Charles. Jill founded Biscayne + Charles to share her broad and deep knowledge of strategy, program development, stakeholder and community engagement, government, policy, health, and social justice with organizations and individuals striving to make communities healthier.
Jill is a vibrant, resourceful, results-oriented executive and senior advisor with a track record of starting new ventures and revitalizing existing initiatives in complex, fast-paced, mission-driven settings. Jill is recognized for her ability to lead premier organizations strategically and operationally across disciplines and sectors and is sought after for counsel on diverse, difficult issues. A Miami native who advanced her professional skills in Boston, Jill combines a hard-earned New England sensibility with creative, tropical flair and passion in all her endeavors.
Jill has worked extensively on the conception, launch, and development of multifaceted initiatives within higher education and the health sphere. She currently serves as Associate Dean + Director at MIT’s PKG Center for Public Service. While in Miami, she held dual roles as the Executive Director of University Foundation Relations and the Strategic Advisor to the Dean of the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work at Florida International University.
Previously, Jill served as Founding Executive Director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care. She built the $30 million Center from scratch, launched and directed over 15 initiatives, and fostered collaborative relationships to increase Harvard’s visibility and impact in the field of primary care. She was a key contributor to fundraising efforts that achieved $10 million in new commitments and served as strategic architect for a flagship primary care practice transformation collaborative across affiliated medical centers. Under Jill's leadership, Harvard Medical School's U.S. News and World Report primary care ranking rose from 17 to 11.
As Chief of Staff for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services, Jill provided strategic leadership and management for the Secretariat's 17 agencies, ensuring that the Patrick Administration's vision was implemented, operations ran smoothly, and information was communicated clearly among multiple internal and external stakeholders—all within a complex, high-stakes, political enterprise representing about half of the state's budget and 24,000 employees. In this capacity, she helped implement the first in the nation healthcare reform resulting in near universal healthcare coverage, established "Community First" as the standard for care for all populations served including seniors and people with disabilities, consolidated state-supported housing services, and created quality measures and benchmarks within and across agencies. She also led the effort to ensure effectiveness, collaborative problem solving, and team morale during extensive recession-driven budget cuts while maintaining services to vulnerable populations.
Jill previously served as Program Director at Harvard Medical School's Center for Excellence in Women's Health and worked at a health consulting firm, a national trade association, and within healthcare systems.
Jill holds a master’s degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Amherst College.