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Report

The Evolving Role and Economic Impact of Employers in Communities

Professional headshot of Gabby Hines, a woman with long brown hair styled in loose waves, wearing a soft green top and a charcoal blazer. She is posed against a dark gray background with a slight smile.

Gabby Hines

Associate, Public Health
Gabby Hines is an associate on the Public Health team at the Milken Institute.
Professional headshot of Lena Flaum, a woman with straight dark brown hair, wearing a charcoal V-neck top and a small pendant necklace. She is smiling slightly and posed against a dark gray background.

Lena Flaum

Senior Associate, Public Health
Lena Flaum is a senior associate on the public health team at Milken Institute Health. As a communications liaison, she leads various project-related writing and editing to amplify the team’s work across its three focus areas of mental health, prevention and chronic disease, and health equity.
Headshot of a smiling woman with long dark brown hair, wearing a bright red blouse, standing against a dark gray background with her arms crossed.

Sabrina Spitaletta

Senior Director, Public Health, Employer Action Exchange
Sabrina Spitaletta has been at the Milken Institute since 2017. She leads the work focused on the role of employers advancing public health and develops strategic collaborations across sectors and industries to advance whole-person health and performance at work and in the community.
Topics
Finance
Labor and Workforce Optimization
Health
Public Health
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The Employer Action Exchange (EAE) has identified eight emerging and escalating risks that employers should consider. These eight risks—mental health, physical security, artificial intelligence, weather events, economic uncertainty, talent shortages, geopolitical instability, and the exclusion of people—affect all businesses regardless of their size, reach, or geographic location. Employers play a critical role in shaping not only their internal workplace community well-being but also that of the external localities in which they operate. Because people’s health is often tied to the safety and well-being of the places where they live and work, investing in healthy communities is not just the right thing to do—it’s a strategic business imperative. 

As part of the larger EAE platform, this brief includes insights and actions from foundational research that informed an executive roundtable held in June 2025, during which 18 employers representing over 500,000 employees gathered in New York to discuss not only how they are navigating these risks, but also the evolving role of local to large employers in community health and well-being. 
 

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