Advocate Health's chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer is stepping down from her role at the end of August, and the Charlotte, N.C.-based system's chief nursing officer plans to retire in December, according to a memo obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Cristy Garcia-Thomas, who has led efforts to address health disparities and social determinants of health, will leave the organization in August. She told the news outlet that her successor as chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer will be named soon, and that she has been involved in the process of screening candidates. Ms. Garcia-Thomas is also president of the Advocate National Center for Health Equity.
Mary Beth Kingston, PhD, RN, Advocate Health's executive vice president and chief nursing officer, will retire in December. Jim Skogsbergh, who had served as co-CEO of Advocate Health alongside Eugene Woods, stepped down May 31, and Executive Vice President Rick Klein retired in May.
The leaders were the last remaining C-suite executives at the system who had been part of Aurora Health Care, which became part of Advocate Aurora Health (dually based in Milwaukee and Downers Grove, Ill.) in 2018.
In late 2022, Advocate Aurora Health merged with Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health to form Advocate Health, a 69-hospital system with footprints in Illinois, Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.