Brian Ackerman

Brian has over two decades of consulting experience and currently serves as the Partner in Ascendient’s Washington, DC, office. He has leveraged his unique analytical and financial knowledge to help clients think strategically while ensuring they adhere to ever-increasing regulatory pressures.

Brian directs Ascendient engagements related to hospital and health system strategy, physician development and planning, and studies of financial feasibility. He also oversees the firm's growing portfolio of public health services, including strategic planning, health equity assessments, and PHAB accreditation.

With his broad experience in healthcare planning and regulation, Brian has frequently assisted clients across the spectrum with service line business plans, market demand studies, community health needs assessments, community health improvement plans, merger/acquisition analysis, and Certificate of Need preparation.  

That kind of variety is what Brian especially enjoys about his work – no two days are ever the same, but every problem solved and every opportunity created leads to the betterment of an organization providing essential services to a community.

When he's not thinking about work, Brian is probably thinking about sports and family. He married his high school sweetheart, coaches travel baseball, and spends a lot of time visiting his college-age kids on opposite coasts. He loves cheering on his UNC Tar Heels and counts himself as a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan (though he does have season tickets for the Washington Commanders to make his wife happy).

Given his love of sports, Brian started college with a major in Sports Medicine, only to realize that he hated science and loved business. After flipping his major and minor, he graduated with a degree in Business Administration and went on to earn a Master of Healthcare Administration degree with concentrations in Finance and Investments from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Brian also loves the water and claims that he would move to the Caribbean tomorrow, if he could – though the lack of professional football teams might be a deal killer.

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

– Yogi Berra