Penny Wheeler, MD, is Minneapolis-based Allina Health's first female CEO. She was promoted to this position in November, and will begin after Kenneth Paulus retires at the end of the year.
Dr. Wheeler currently serves as president and chief clinical officer of Allina Health, where she is responsible for leading the organization's clinical quality and improvement agenda, ensuring best-practice approaches, ongoing innovation and excellence in care as well as supporting the development and retention of clinicians. Prior to her appointment to CCO in June 2006, Dr. Wheeler served on the Allina Health Board of Directors, where she directed the quality committee.
Dr. Wheeler is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist, and has served patients at Women's Health Consultants in Minneapolis and taught as an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Past leadership roles include president of Abbott Northwestern Hospital's medical staff, also in Minneapolis. She also served as chairperson and vice-chairperson of the hospital's obstetrics and gynecology department as well as on several committees.
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