Chief Risk Officer

As Chief Risk Officer at City of Hope, Debra Fields oversees the Corporate Compliance Office and the Department of Internal Audit. The Corporate Compliance Office oversees the implementation of City of Hope’s corporate compliance program.  Specifically, the Corporate Compliance Office handles issues involving corporate ethics, compliance with the complex laws and regulations governing City of Hope’s provision of and reimbursement for health care services,  research activities, and development activities  She is assisted by the Corporate Compliance Committee, a standing committee that meets regularly to evaluate and support the effectiveness of the Compliance Program by ensuring that objectives of the program are reflected in City of Hope governance, risk management, information management, financial and operational activities. Fields also serves as City of Hope’s Privacy Officer.

Fields joined City of Hope in October of 1998 as its first Chief Compliance Officer. Prior to joining City of Hope, Fields served as in-house counsel at The George Washington University for six years. She worked closely with senior administrators on legal aspects of faculty, student and personnel matters, as well as regulatory, taxation and intellectual property issues. As in-house counsel, she was also responsible for employment matters including internal grievances, EEOC and OCR complaints, and labor negotiations with the campus’ unions. She also served as an associate with Arnold and Porter, a law firm in Washington D.C., where she was a member of the firm’s corporate, international and government contracts practice groups.

Fields obtained her juris doctorate, cum laude, from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass., and her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.