A Conversation That Challenges How We Think About Healthcare, Equity, and What’s Actually Possible

When you sit down with someone who didn’t just critique a broken system—but stepped outside it to build something better—you hear a different kind of leadership story.

On this episode of the ivi Podcast, Joe Phoenix speaks with Dr. Robyn Riseberg, founder of Boston Community Pediatrics, one of the first nonprofit pediatric private practices of its kind in the United States. What emerges is not just a conversation about healthcare delivery, but a blueprint for how leaders can rethink impact when traditional models no longer work.

Robyn’s work forces an uncomfortable but necessary question: What if the systems we keep trying to fix were never designed to work for the people who need them most? And more importantly, what happens when someone decides to build outside of them entirely?

Innovation Often Begins Where the System Breaks Down

Robyn’s path to founding Boston Community Pediatrics involved training within some of the country’s most respected medical institutions. She spent years working inside community health centers, serving families who relied on public insurance and safety-net care. She loved the mission. She loved the patients.

But over time, the cracks became impossible to ignore.

Fifteen-minute appointments. Endless bureaucracy. Incentives that rewarded speed over care. A system that treated mental health, housing insecurity, food access, and legal status as “someone else’s problem”—despite their direct impact on a child’s health.

Rather than accept those constraints as inevitable, Robyn did something rare in healthcare: she paused and asked whether the system itself was the problem.

Philanthropy as Infrastructure, Not Charity

Boston Community Pediatrics was built on a deceptively simple idea: combine the responsiveness and continuity of a private practice with the mission and accessibility of nonprofit care, and fund the difference with philanthropy.

This wasn’t charity layered on top of healthcare. It was philanthropy used as infrastructure.

By removing profit pressure and bureaucracy, Robyn and her team created space for longer visits, integrated mental health care, and real support for the social determinants of health—food, housing, education, immigration, and family stability—without forcing families to navigate a maze of disconnected services.

The result is a model that delivers more care at a lower cost. While the U.S. spends roughly $14,000 per person per year on healthcare, a full year of comprehensive care for a child at Boston Community Pediatrics costs under $3,000 and includes everything from medical visits to school supplies and food support.

Leadership in Times of Crisis Is About Preparation, Not Panic

Boston Community Pediatrics opened its doors in November 2020, mid-pandemic, amid a national reckoning over racial equity and unprecedented uncertainty.

COVID didn’t create healthcare inequities—it exposed them. And rather than wait for perfect conditions, Robyn made a leadership decision that would define the organization’s culture: build resilience into the model from day one.

That mindset showed up again when federal grants were abruptly cut, when SNAP funding became uncertain, and when immigrant families faced growing fear and instability. Instead of reacting slowly, the team had contingency plans ready, with legal support on site, and emergency food access prepared, and the freedom to act without waiting for permission.

Leadership, in Robyn’s view, isn’t about controlling every variable. It’s about removing friction so teams can do what’s right, quickly.

Centering the Patient Changes Everything

What makes this model so powerful isn’t just what it includes, but also what it removes.

No forcing families to retell their story to multiple departments.
No separating mental health from primary care.
No pretending that housing insecurity or legal stress doesn’t affect a child’s physical well-being.

By centering the patient and trusting interdisciplinary teams, Boston Community Pediatrics operates less like a clinic and more like a community anchor. And that philosophy extends internally. Robyn shields her team from organizational “noise,” encouraging them to focus on care while leadership handles complexity behind the scenes. It’s a reminder that sustainable impact requires protecting the people doing the work.

What This Conversation Signals for the Future

Healthcare, like philanthropy, is approaching a breaking point. Costs continue to rise. Access continues to shrink. Burnout is accelerating across the workforce.

Robyn’s story suggests a different path forward: invest earlier, simplify systems, and trust leaders who are willing to step outside existing frameworks.

Her long-term vision isn’t limited to pediatrics. It’s a future where primary care, prevention, and community-based models become the foundation—not the exception—across healthcare.

As Robyn notes, when systems crumble, we have a choice: rebuild what existed, or build what actually works.

Watch the Full Conversation

This episode is essential viewing for leaders in healthcare, philanthropy, policy, and impact-driven organizations—and for anyone questioning whether meaningful change is still possible inside complex systems.

Watch the full ivi Podcast episode with Dr. Robyn Riseberg to hear how one leader turned conviction into action and built a model that’s quietly redefining what care can look like.