Heather (Hagg) West, PhD is the founding CEO and advisor to Wellnest Fertility. She is an executive operator with experience across the private sector, federal government, and venture-backed healthcare startups. Prior to joining Wellnest, Dr. West led Clinical Operations at Parsley Health, a digital health company focused on improving outcomes for women with complex chronic conditions. Earlier, she held leadership roles at Castlight Health and Crossover Health.
Previously, Dr. West served as National Director for the Veterans Health Administration’s Health Systems Engineering Resource Centers and founding director of the VA Center for Applied Systems Engineering (VA-CASE). She scaled VA-CASE from an initial $1M grant to a $40M enterprise program integrating systems engineering, informatics, and implementation science to deploy transformational initiatives across 150 VA healthcare systems. The Congressionally ordered Commission on Care (2016) recognized the program for advancing best practices in support of the VA’s mission.
An applied researcher and educator, Dr. West is currently an Adjunct Instructor at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service. She has also served as a Research Scientist at the VA Center for Implementing Evidence-Based Practice and was on the faculty at Purdue’s School of Engineering and Technology, where she founded the Center for Enterprise Excellence in partnership with the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering. She began her career as a semiconductor process engineer at Intel.
Dr. West holds dual BS degrees in Ceramic Engineering and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri–Rolla, an MS in Materials Science and Engineering, and a PhD in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She has co-authored 30+ peer-reviewed and conference publications on integrated health, health services research, implementation science, and health system improvement.