The Health Action Alliance was born out of a crisis. In February 2021, five leading organizations — the Ad Council, Business Roundtable, CDC Foundation, de Beaumont Foundation, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation — came together with a shared conviction that employers were uniquely positioned to help end the COVID-19 pandemic. Americans trusted their employers. Employers reached millions of workers. And public health needed all the help it could get.

It was a model already proven by the Civic Alliance, a nonpartisan coalition of more than 1,300 companies committed to strengthening democracy through civic participation. That coalition was built by Meteorite, a social impact firm co-founded by Steven Levine, a corporate communications veteran who previously served as White House Associate Director of Communications under President George W. Bush and led Univision's social impact brand, and Stephen Massey, a social entrepreneur who served as a White House National Security Fellow under President Bill Clinton and helped mobilize more than 300 of the world's largest media companies in response to the global AIDS crisis. When the CDC Foundation asked if Meteorite could do for public health what it had done for democracy, the Health Action Alliance was the answer.

What started as a COVID response quickly became something larger. As the acute phase of the pandemic gave way to longer-term questions about workforce health, HAA expanded its focus to include a range of challenges: mental health, women's health, ending the HIV epidemic, extreme weather preparedness and resilience, and more.

Today, HAA is the nation's largest employer network advancing public health, connecting more than 11,000 employers to the tools, research, and peer networks they need to take action on workforce health. The founding belief hasn't changed: Good health is good business, and employers have an essential role to play in building healthier communities.