Here is a list of 52 women who demonstrate outstanding leadership within the hospital and healthcare industry.
Marna P. Borgstrom. Ms. Borgstrom, the president and CEO of Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn., also heads Yale-New Haven Health System, the hospital's parent. In office since 2005, she is the first woman to run the organization. She has held numerous executive positions from 1985 until her appointment to president and CEO. Ms. Borgstrom joined Yale-New Haven Hospital in 1979 as an administrative fellow. She has been a director of VHA since May 2009 and is chair of the Connecticut Hospital Association Board of Trustees.
Angela F. Braly. As chair, president and CEO for WellPoint Inc. in Indianapolis, Ind., Ms. Braly is one of the most high-profile female executives in the country. Since June 2007, she has led the country's largest health insurer by membership. She was listed by Forbes as the sixteenth most powerful woman in the world in 2007, fourth most powerful in 2008 and eighth most powerful in 2009. She oversees approximately 39,000 employees and an operating revenue of over $60 billion (2009), as well as more than 33 million members. Ms. Braly previously served as executive vice president, general counsel and chief public affairs officer of WellPoint.
Ruth W. Brinkley. Ms. Brinkley is the president and CEO of Carondelet Health Network in Tucson, Ariz., which operates four hospitals in Southern Arizona. As president and CEO, she also serves as west ministry market leader for Ascension Health, supervising the faith-based missions of hospitals in several western states. Ms. Brinkley previously served as CEO of Memorial Health Care System in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Katherine Bunting. Ms. Bunting is CEO of Fairfield (Ill.) Memorial Hospital. Under her leadership, the hospital provides patients with a friendly and family-like atmosphere. Ms. Bunting encourages her physicians and staff to deliver exceptional customer service, and it has received the Customer Service Award from Alliant Management Services, a company that manages the hospital, for the last four years.
K. Bobbi Carbone, MD, MBA. Dr. Carbone has served as COO of William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., since July 2010. She is the first physician and the first female COO in Beaumont's 55-year history. Dr. Carbone joined Beaumont from Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, where she served as chief clinical operations officer. She is a board-certified anesthesiologist who has also served as an independent healthcare industry consultant and as healthcare director and faculty member at Rice University Jones Graduate School of Management in Houston.
Janet Corrigan, PhD. Dr. Corrigan leads the non-profit National Quality Forum, a standard-setting organization that establishes national priorities and goals for performance improvement. From 1998-2005, Dr. Corrigan served as senior board director at the Institute of Medicine, where she led the IOM's Quality Chasm Series in producing 10 reports on healthcare quality. She also served as executive director of the president's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry.
Diane Corrigan. Ms. Corrigan is CFO of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is consistently ranked as one of the country's best in U.S. News & World Report and is part of Penn Medicine, along with the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. In 2010, Ms. Corrigan was honored with the MAP Award from the Healthcare Financial Management Association, which honors excellent work on hospital revenue cycles.
Susan Croushore. As president and CEO of The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ms. Croushore oversees a hospital consistently ranked as one of the nation's Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. In her role as CEO, she has focused on workforce retention and quality improvement. She previously served as CEO of Jeanes Hospital-Temple University Health System in Pennsylvania and was trained as a microbiologist.
Karen Davis. Ms. Davis is president of the Commonwealth Fund, in New York, a national philanthrophy engaged in independent research on health and social policy issues. Ms. Davis is a nationally recognized economist, having served as chairman of the department of health policy and management at The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She also served as deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the Department of Health and Human Services from 1977-1980 and was the first woman to head a U.S. public health service agency.
Faye Deich, RN. Ms. Deich serves as the COO of Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wis., which is the ninth largest employer in the region with more than 1,300 employees and more than 250 physician partners. She led the hospital to winning the Wisconsin Forward Award, which is awarded to organizations that demonstrate excellent business practices. The hospital also won the 2008 Practice Greenhealth Environmental Leadership Award and was inducted into the Environmental Leadership Circle under her leadership. She was the chief nursing officer at Sacred Heart prior to becoming the COO.
Nancy-Ann DeParle, JD. As the director of the White House Office of Health Reform under President Obama, Ms. DeParle leads the administration's efforts on healthcare issues. Ms. DeParle, who worked with the Clintons on their health reform efforts of the 1990's, is an expert on Medicare and Medicaid and helped the Obama administration expand those programs in pursuit of universal coverage. She has sat on the boards of many health companies, from medical treatment producers to hospital systems.
Laurie Eberst, RN. Ms. Eberst is the president and CEO of Catholic Healthcare West Ventura County Market Service Area and St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, Calif. She previously served as president of Mercy Gilbert (Ariz.) Medical Center and senior vice president of clinical services and chief nurse executive at CHW's St. Bernardine Medical Center in San Bernadino, Calif. During this part of her career, she oversaw construction and expansion projects for several facilities.
Linda Efferen, MD. Dr. Efferen serves as senior vice president and chief medical officer of South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, N.Y., where she holds responsibility for facilitating medical staff interactions with hospital administration and assuring the effective and efficient delivery of quality medical care. She is board-certified in hospice and palliative medicine, critical care medicine, pulmonary medicine and internal medicine and has been listed in Castle Connolly's Top Doctors: New York Metro Area for seven years in a row.
Patricia Gabow, MD. Dr. Gabow, a nephrologist, is CEO of Denver (Colo.) Health, which consists of a 477-bed hospital, a teaching institute affiliated with the University of Colorado, as well as a network of clinics in schools and neighborhoods, the public health department and the 911 response system for the city and county of Denver. Dr. Gabow joined Denver Health in 1973 as chief of the renal division.
Deborah L. Gorbach. Ms. Gorbach was appointed as vice president of accounting, which is equivalent to a CFO role, at Akron (Ohio) General Medical Center in March 2006. Recently, she has been working with Michael Rindler, a Maine-based consultant who was hired in 2009 to turn the hospital around after former CEO Alan Bleyer retired. As a result, Akron General went from a $7 million operating loss in 2008 to $2.1 million in net operating revenue over expenses at the end of 2009.
Pauline Grant. Ms. Grant is the CEO of Pompano Beach, Fla.-based North Broward Medical Center, the second-largest hospital in the Broward Health System. Under her leadership, NBMC was first in the nation to attain Joint Commission Certification for its Alzheimer's disease program, first in Florida to attain Joint Commission Certification for stroke rehabilitation and the first hospital in Broward County to attain Joint Commission Certification for hip and knee replacement.
Mary Grealy. Ms. Grealy is president of the Healthcare Leadership Council, a coalition of CEOs of the nation's leading healthcare companies and organizations. The HLC advocates consumer-centered healthcare reform, emphasizing the value of private sector innovation. It is the only health policy advocacy group in the country that represents all sectors of the healthcare industry. Ms. Grealy has served as president of HLC since Aug. 1999. Previously she served as chief Washington counsel for the American Hosptial Association and COO and executive counsel for the Federation of American Health Systems, a trade association representing 1,700 investor-owned and manged hospitals and health systems.
Barbara Greene. Ms. Greene is the president of Franciscan Physicians Hospital in Munster, Ind., which is a joint venture between hospital physicians and the not-for-profit Sisters of St. Francis Health Services. She has served in executive positions at other facilities, including Saint Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers in Hammond, Ind., and Provena's St. Mary's Hospital in Kankakee, Ill. Ms. Greene is a CPA and a board member of the American Heart Association.
Misty Darling Hansen. Ms. Hansen had been Tucson, Ariz.-based University Medical Center's chief accounting officer before being named CFO in Jan. 2010. After joining the medical center in 2001, she worked on a variety of financial initiatives. She oversees an annual operating budget of $530 million. The hospital has a high number of patients enrolled in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment system, the state Medicaid program, which could face more state budget cuts.
Debbie Hay, RN, BSN. Ms. Hay is president of the Texas Institute for Surgery, a specialty surgery hospital located in Dallas. She has 30 years of nursing experience, which helps her oversee day-to-day operations at the hospital. Ms. Hay has created several initiatives to cut down on waste and to "go green" at her facility, including an extensive recycling program.
Crystal Haynes. Ms. Haynes has served as CEO of Saint Louis University Hospital, a 332-bed teaching hospital and trauma center owned by Tenet Healthcare, for over seven years. Ms. Haynes has also served as COO of George Washington Unviersity Hospital and Capitol Hill Hospital, both in Washington, D.C. She serves on the boards of the Health Research & Educational Trust and the American Hospital Association.
Patricia Hemingway Hall. As president and CEO of Health Care Service Operation, Ms. Hemingway Hall oversees the operations of the nation's largest customer-owned health insurer and fourth largest insurer overall. HCSC, which operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, serves more than 12 million members and 18,000 employees. Ms. Hemingway Hall has led HCSC through an acquisition of TMG Health, an industry-leading third-party administrator of government business, and an acquisition of MEDecision, a health information technology company.
Mary Kay Henry. For 29 years, Ms. Henry has represented healthcare workers through her work with the Service Employees International Union, of which she was elected international president in May 2010. She is the first woman to lead the union. During her work with SEIU, she helped pioneer the organization's use of card check agreements, non-traditional collective bargaining agreements, comprehensive campaigns and system-wide healthcare organizing strategies. She is also a labor adviser to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Catholic Health Care & Work Subcommittee and a founding member of SEIU's gay and lesbian Lavender Caucus.
Cathryn Hibbs. Ms. Hibbs is CEO of Deaconess Hospital in Oklahoma City. Prior to her appointment at Deaconess, she was a division vice president of operations for Community Health Systems. Ms. Hibbs has held many hospital leadership roles, including serving as the CEO for several hospitals in several states with both CHS and HCA. She also served as COO for St. Mary's Hospital in Euclid, Okla.
Constance A. Howes. Ms. Howes is president and CEO of Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island in Providence, R.I., which specializes in the care of women and newborns. Previously she served as executive vice president and COO of Women & Infants and was formerly vice president and general counsel for Care New England. Among her executive roles, she served as a past chair of American Hospital Association’s Maternal Child Health Governing Council, past president of the Sexual Assault & Trauma Resource Center of Rhode Island and past vice chair of the National Conference for Community and Justice. She is active with the Council of Women and Infants Specialty Hospitals.
Susan Humphrey-Barnett. Ms. Humphrey-Barnett is the area operations administration for the Providence Health & Services Alaska. In her current role, she oversees a wide range of Providence facilities and programs, including long-term care for Kodiak Medical Center, Valdez Medical Center, Seward Medical Center and many others. She began work at Providence in 1991 and previously served as commissioner of the Alaska Department of Corrections. Before being named to her current position, she served Providence Alaska Medical Center as director of mental health services, assistant administrator of mental health services and assistant administrator for managed health and physician integration.
Karen Ignani. Ms. Ignagni has served as the president of America's Health Insurance Plans since 1993. In her current position, she lobbies politicians on behalf of American insurance companies and is often mentioned as one of the most effective lobbyists and most powerful people in healthcare. In 2003, when the American Association of Health Plans merged with the Health Insurance of America to become America's Health Insurance Plans, Ms. Ignagni was chosen as president and CEO. She has written many articles on healthcare policy issues and has been published in The New York Times, USA Today and the New England Journal of Medicine, among others.
Catherine A. Jacobson. Currently serving as the CFO and treasurer at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Ms. Jacobson previously served as vice president for program evaluation, assistant to the president and chief compliance officer since beginning at Rush in 1996. Ms. Jacobson has been national chair for the Healthcare Financial Management Association.
Deborah Carey Johnson, RN. Ms. Johnson is president and CEO of Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. She worked her way up the ladder at EMMC, starting as a staff nurse in the critical care unit before assuming her current role as president and CEO. Ms. Johnson was president of the Organization of Maine Nurse Executives from 1990-1992 and has served on several boards, including the Maine Hospital Association, the American Heart Association Penobscot Division and the United Way of Eastern Maine. Ms. Johnson is also an executive vice president of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems.
Donna Katen-Bahensky. Ms. Katen-Bahensky is president and CEO of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison. Before coming to the University of Wisconsin, she held numerous executive positions at health systems across the country, including the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Iowa Health Care in Iowa City, Iowa. She is also currently a member of the administrative board of the Council of Teaching Hospitals of the Association of American Medical Colleges. She was also instrumental in establishing the first Iowa Women's Leadership Conference.
Sister Carol Keehan. Sister Keehan is the ninth president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, a position she assumed in Oct. 2005. She is responsible for all association operations, both in its St. Louis and Washington, D.C., offices. CHA represents 1,200 facilities and systems nationwide. Sister Keehan has been an active voice during healthcare reform, advocating for universal healthcare, including coverage of immigrants.
Jane Keller. Ms. Keller is the CEO and chief nursing officer for the Indiana Orthopedic Hospital in Indianapolis, where she works with the board of managers to create and implement the hospital's strategic plan and develops and maintains a positive image of the hospital. She serves as the development chair for Indiana’s Arthritis Foundation and is an active member of its board of directors. Ms. Keller started at OrthoIndy, the group that owns IOH, as the executive director/nursing director of surgery centers. Ms. Keller works closely with John Martin, CEO of OrthoIndy, to make sure the two groups are following similar paths.
Mary Jo Lewis. Ms. Lewis is the new CEO at Sumner Regional Health Systems in Gallatin, Tenn. She previously served 11 years as CEO of Jackson Purchase Medical Center in Mayfield, Ky. During Ms. Lewis' tenure at Jackson Purchase, the 107-bed hospital received exemplary scores in patient satisfaction and was recognized as one of Thomas Reuters 100 Top Hospitals. Ms. Lewis earned her master's degree in finance from Benedictine University in Lisle, Ill.
Roberta Luskin-Hawk, MD. Dr. Luskin-Hawk, an infectious disease specialist, became CEO of 321-bed Saint Joseph Hospital of Chicago, part of nine-hospital Resurrection Health Care, in Aug. 2009. Founded in 1868, Saint Joseph Hospital was rated among the top U.S. hospitals for stroke care and pulmonary services by HealthGrades. Dr. Luskin-Hawk co-founded one of Chicago's first inpatient HIV units at Saint Joseph in 1987 and in 1989 established the AIDS Research Alliance Chicago, an independent, non-profit clinical research consortium.
Sally A. Mason Boemer. As senior vice president for finance, Ms. Mason Boemer has improved collections, shepherded payor contracts and organized cost-cutting teams at Massachusetts General Hospital. She started at Massachusetts General in 1993 in an administrative fellowship, an educational program that allowed her to rotate through the hospital's entire operations and finance departments. In May, the hospital was $4.2 million ahead of budget.
Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD. Dr. Nabel, a cardiologist, became president of Brigham and Women's and Faulkner Hospitals in Boston in Jan. 2010. The 750-bed hospital is one of two non-university recipients of research funding from the National Institutes of Health for the past 10 years. She was previously director of the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and is a nationally recognized scholar, having authored 250 publications.
Sister Mary Norberta. Sister Norberta is president and CEO of St. Joseph Healthcare and St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor, Maine. She began her career as one of the first-ever pediatric nurses at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She has held a number of positions including a faculty appointment at Harvard Medical School and Boston College Graduate School of Nursing. Sister Norberta was appointed associate executive director of St. Joseph Hospital in 1980 and became CEO in 1982. In 1995, she helped establish the Maine Health Alliance, a group of eight small and mid-sized hospitals.
Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, M.D. Dr. Pescovitz is the first woman to serve as CEO of the University of Michigan Health System, which includes the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers, the U-M Medical School and the clinical services of the U-M School of Nursing. As CEO of UMHS, she is responsible for oversight of $3 billion in revenue and a Medical School with more than $445 million in NIH funding. She previously oversaw research at Indiana University's medical school and served as president and CEO of Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. She took over as leader of University of Michigan Health System in May 2009.
Bonnie Phipps. Ms. Phipps is the president and CEO of St. Agnes Healthcare in Baltimore, as well as the Baltimore/DC Ministry Market Leader for Ascension Health. She provides strategic and operational leadership for St. Agnes Healthcare while promoting alignment among health ministries in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., market. Prior to joining St. Agnes, Ms. Phipps served as president and CEO of Saint Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta and president and CEO of PROMINA Health System. A certified public accountant and certified managed care professional, Ms. Phipps was inducted into the Georgia State University Business Hall of Fame in 2005.
Karen Poole. Ms. Poole is currently serving as vice president and COO of the Boca Raton (Fla.) Community Hospital and has more than 30 years of experience in healthcare operations. She has held numerous hospital executive positions and has served as a healthcare advisor and led various facility improvement initiatives. Among her expertise, she is experienced and knowledgeable in general hospital operations, managed care and profit improvement.
Andrea Price. As the new CEO of seven-hospital Mercy Health Partners in Cincinnati, a system she joined less than a year ago as COO. The northwest Ohio healthcare delivery system currently employs 7,300 workers and reports net revenues of nearly $900 million. Ms. Price has held other executive roles at Sparrow Health System in Lansing, Mich., Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Mich., and Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Mimi Robertson. Ms. Robertson serves as president and CEO of Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center and Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver, Colo. She began her role in 2000 and has held leadership positions, including chair, in the Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce. She also serves on the board of the Federation of American Hospitals, having served as chair of the CEO committee and member of the public relations and legislative committees, and the Colorado Health and Hospital Association. Before joining Presbyterian/St. Luke's, Ms. Robertson was CEO of two hospitals in Louisiana: Women's & Children's Hospital in Lafayette and the Medical Center of Southwest Louisiana.
Kathryn Ruscitto. Ms. Ruscitto is the new president and CEO of St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, N.Y. Ms. Ruscitto has worked with St. Joseph's since 2001 in various executive capacities and led a multi-million dollar renovation project and spearheaded the hospital's involvement in a Syracuse revitalization project. Prior to joining St. Joseph's, Ms. Ruscitto worked as senior vice president of strategy for Loretto, the largest provider of eldercare services in upstate New York.
Linda B. Russell. Ms. Russell is the CEO of The Woman's Hospital of Texas, located in Houston, and has seen the hospital grow in both size and prestige since she started in 1994. She was recently appointed to the Judicial Compensation Commission and currently serves on the March of Dimes board of directors, executive board and Texas state executive committee. She also serves on the board of directors for the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center.
Valinda Rutledge. Ms. Rutledge is the CEO of Gaston Memorial Hospital, part of CaroMont Health, in Gastonia, N.C. Ms. Rutledge arrived at CaroMont in fall 2009 from a two-hospital system in Greenville, S.C. Ms. Rutledge has also served as president of St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City, Okla., administrator of Brandon (Fla.) Regional Medical Center and vice president of operations for St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich. She has served as a board member with the United Way in Greenville and chair of Greenville Advantage, the Chamber of Commerce economic development committee.
Christina M. Ryan. Ms. Ryan is CEO of The Women's Hospital in Newburgh, Ind., a specialty hospital that cares for women of all ages. She was recently appointed to the Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality. Ms. Ryan has received many other awards including the Spirit of Women, Next Generation of Women's Health Leaders Award and the Health and Social Services Individual Leadership Award from Leadership Evansville.
Sister Mary Jean Ryan. Sister Mary Jean is the chair and CEO of SSM Health Care in St. Louis, a healthcare system sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary that owns, manages and is affiliated with 15 acute-care hospitals and two nursing homes in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma. Prior to 1986, she held a variety of executive posts at her congregation's hospitals. She serves on the National Commission for Quality Long Term Care and on a variety of boards of directors at the state and national levels.
Rachel A. Seifert. Ms. Seifert serves as executive vice president, secretary and general counsel for Community Health Systems, where she is responsible for the legal aspects of a variety of areas within the company, including acquisitions and development, SEC and corporate governance and litigation and management of the legal department. Prior to joining CHS in 1998, Ms. Seifert worked with Columbia/HCA as a vice president and associate general counsel since 1992. She also spent seven years in private law practice in Dallas and received her JD in 1985 from the University of Maryland.
Peggy Troy. Ms. Troy is the CEO of Children's Hospital and Health System in Milwaukee. Previously, Ms. Troy served as the COO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, Tenn., where she helped to oversee two academic medical centers, four community hospitals, a long-term care facility and over 1,600 licensed beds. Ms. Troy also served as CEO of Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center and filled leadership positions at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
Mary Wakefield, PhD, RN. Dr. Wakefield was named administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration by President Obama in Feb. 2009. HRSA works to fill in the healthcare gaps for people who live outside the economic and medical mainstream, using its $7 billion annual budget to expand access to quality healthcare in partnership with healthcare providers. Dr. Wakefield came to HRSA from the University of North Dakota, where she served as associate dean of rural health at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Wakefield is an expert on rural health issues and has served on MedPAC, the National Advisory Council for the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Advisory Committee to HRSA's Office of Rural Health Policy.
Beverly B. Wallace. Ms. Wallace is president of the Shared Services Group for Nashville, Tenn.-based Hospital Corporation of America, a leading provider of healthcare services. She is responsible for overseeing the company's accounts receivable management, the All About Staffing, Financial and Employee Services systems development and implementation, HealthTrust Purchasing Group and managed care contracting for HCA's approximately 200 hospitals. Ms. Wallace joined HCA in 1993, following a recent merger with Galen. She served as CFO for the Nashville and Mid-Atlantic divisions, overseeing hospital financial operations, managed care contracting and physician services. Prior to joining HCA, Ms. Wallace worked with Humana in Florida.
Ellen Zane. Ms. Zane is the president and CEO of Tufts Medical Center in Medford, Mass., as well as the Floating Hospital for Children. She is the first woman to run the hospital in its 210-year history. Ms. Zane also serves as a director of Parexel International, a director of Fiduciary Trust Company and a director of Century Capital Management. As CEO of TMC, she oversees 5,000 physicians, nurses, researchers and other healthcare workers, as well as 450 patient beds. She orchestrated a major turnaround for Trusts-New England Medical Center in 2005, leading the hospital from a loss of around $250 million in total to a robust annual profit.
Marna P. Borgstrom. Ms. Borgstrom, the president and CEO of Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn., also heads Yale-New Haven Health System, the hospital's parent. In office since 2005, she is the first woman to run the organization. She has held numerous executive positions from 1985 until her appointment to president and CEO. Ms. Borgstrom joined Yale-New Haven Hospital in 1979 as an administrative fellow. She has been a director of VHA since May 2009 and is chair of the Connecticut Hospital Association Board of Trustees.
Angela F. Braly. As chair, president and CEO for WellPoint Inc. in Indianapolis, Ind., Ms. Braly is one of the most high-profile female executives in the country. Since June 2007, she has led the country's largest health insurer by membership. She was listed by Forbes as the sixteenth most powerful woman in the world in 2007, fourth most powerful in 2008 and eighth most powerful in 2009. She oversees approximately 39,000 employees and an operating revenue of over $60 billion (2009), as well as more than 33 million members. Ms. Braly previously served as executive vice president, general counsel and chief public affairs officer of WellPoint.
Ruth W. Brinkley. Ms. Brinkley is the president and CEO of Carondelet Health Network in Tucson, Ariz., which operates four hospitals in Southern Arizona. As president and CEO, she also serves as west ministry market leader for Ascension Health, supervising the faith-based missions of hospitals in several western states. Ms. Brinkley previously served as CEO of Memorial Health Care System in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Katherine Bunting. Ms. Bunting is CEO of Fairfield (Ill.) Memorial Hospital. Under her leadership, the hospital provides patients with a friendly and family-like atmosphere. Ms. Bunting encourages her physicians and staff to deliver exceptional customer service, and it has received the Customer Service Award from Alliant Management Services, a company that manages the hospital, for the last four years.
K. Bobbi Carbone, MD, MBA. Dr. Carbone has served as COO of William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., since July 2010. She is the first physician and the first female COO in Beaumont's 55-year history. Dr. Carbone joined Beaumont from Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, where she served as chief clinical operations officer. She is a board-certified anesthesiologist who has also served as an independent healthcare industry consultant and as healthcare director and faculty member at Rice University Jones Graduate School of Management in Houston.
Janet Corrigan, PhD. Dr. Corrigan leads the non-profit National Quality Forum, a standard-setting organization that establishes national priorities and goals for performance improvement. From 1998-2005, Dr. Corrigan served as senior board director at the Institute of Medicine, where she led the IOM's Quality Chasm Series in producing 10 reports on healthcare quality. She also served as executive director of the president's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry.
Diane Corrigan. Ms. Corrigan is CFO of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is consistently ranked as one of the country's best in U.S. News & World Report and is part of Penn Medicine, along with the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. In 2010, Ms. Corrigan was honored with the MAP Award from the Healthcare Financial Management Association, which honors excellent work on hospital revenue cycles.
Susan Croushore. As president and CEO of The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ms. Croushore oversees a hospital consistently ranked as one of the nation's Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. In her role as CEO, she has focused on workforce retention and quality improvement. She previously served as CEO of Jeanes Hospital-Temple University Health System in Pennsylvania and was trained as a microbiologist.
Karen Davis. Ms. Davis is president of the Commonwealth Fund, in New York, a national philanthrophy engaged in independent research on health and social policy issues. Ms. Davis is a nationally recognized economist, having served as chairman of the department of health policy and management at The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She also served as deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the Department of Health and Human Services from 1977-1980 and was the first woman to head a U.S. public health service agency.
Faye Deich, RN. Ms. Deich serves as the COO of Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wis., which is the ninth largest employer in the region with more than 1,300 employees and more than 250 physician partners. She led the hospital to winning the Wisconsin Forward Award, which is awarded to organizations that demonstrate excellent business practices. The hospital also won the 2008 Practice Greenhealth Environmental Leadership Award and was inducted into the Environmental Leadership Circle under her leadership. She was the chief nursing officer at Sacred Heart prior to becoming the COO.
Nancy-Ann DeParle, JD. As the director of the White House Office of Health Reform under President Obama, Ms. DeParle leads the administration's efforts on healthcare issues. Ms. DeParle, who worked with the Clintons on their health reform efforts of the 1990's, is an expert on Medicare and Medicaid and helped the Obama administration expand those programs in pursuit of universal coverage. She has sat on the boards of many health companies, from medical treatment producers to hospital systems.
Laurie Eberst, RN. Ms. Eberst is the president and CEO of Catholic Healthcare West Ventura County Market Service Area and St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, Calif. She previously served as president of Mercy Gilbert (Ariz.) Medical Center and senior vice president of clinical services and chief nurse executive at CHW's St. Bernardine Medical Center in San Bernadino, Calif. During this part of her career, she oversaw construction and expansion projects for several facilities.
Linda Efferen, MD. Dr. Efferen serves as senior vice president and chief medical officer of South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, N.Y., where she holds responsibility for facilitating medical staff interactions with hospital administration and assuring the effective and efficient delivery of quality medical care. She is board-certified in hospice and palliative medicine, critical care medicine, pulmonary medicine and internal medicine and has been listed in Castle Connolly's Top Doctors: New York Metro Area for seven years in a row.
Patricia Gabow, MD. Dr. Gabow, a nephrologist, is CEO of Denver (Colo.) Health, which consists of a 477-bed hospital, a teaching institute affiliated with the University of Colorado, as well as a network of clinics in schools and neighborhoods, the public health department and the 911 response system for the city and county of Denver. Dr. Gabow joined Denver Health in 1973 as chief of the renal division.
Deborah L. Gorbach. Ms. Gorbach was appointed as vice president of accounting, which is equivalent to a CFO role, at Akron (Ohio) General Medical Center in March 2006. Recently, she has been working with Michael Rindler, a Maine-based consultant who was hired in 2009 to turn the hospital around after former CEO Alan Bleyer retired. As a result, Akron General went from a $7 million operating loss in 2008 to $2.1 million in net operating revenue over expenses at the end of 2009.
Pauline Grant. Ms. Grant is the CEO of Pompano Beach, Fla.-based North Broward Medical Center, the second-largest hospital in the Broward Health System. Under her leadership, NBMC was first in the nation to attain Joint Commission Certification for its Alzheimer's disease program, first in Florida to attain Joint Commission Certification for stroke rehabilitation and the first hospital in Broward County to attain Joint Commission Certification for hip and knee replacement.
Mary Grealy. Ms. Grealy is president of the Healthcare Leadership Council, a coalition of CEOs of the nation's leading healthcare companies and organizations. The HLC advocates consumer-centered healthcare reform, emphasizing the value of private sector innovation. It is the only health policy advocacy group in the country that represents all sectors of the healthcare industry. Ms. Grealy has served as president of HLC since Aug. 1999. Previously she served as chief Washington counsel for the American Hosptial Association and COO and executive counsel for the Federation of American Health Systems, a trade association representing 1,700 investor-owned and manged hospitals and health systems.
Barbara Greene. Ms. Greene is the president of Franciscan Physicians Hospital in Munster, Ind., which is a joint venture between hospital physicians and the not-for-profit Sisters of St. Francis Health Services. She has served in executive positions at other facilities, including Saint Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers in Hammond, Ind., and Provena's St. Mary's Hospital in Kankakee, Ill. Ms. Greene is a CPA and a board member of the American Heart Association.
Misty Darling Hansen. Ms. Hansen had been Tucson, Ariz.-based University Medical Center's chief accounting officer before being named CFO in Jan. 2010. After joining the medical center in 2001, she worked on a variety of financial initiatives. She oversees an annual operating budget of $530 million. The hospital has a high number of patients enrolled in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment system, the state Medicaid program, which could face more state budget cuts.
Debbie Hay, RN, BSN. Ms. Hay is president of the Texas Institute for Surgery, a specialty surgery hospital located in Dallas. She has 30 years of nursing experience, which helps her oversee day-to-day operations at the hospital. Ms. Hay has created several initiatives to cut down on waste and to "go green" at her facility, including an extensive recycling program.
Crystal Haynes. Ms. Haynes has served as CEO of Saint Louis University Hospital, a 332-bed teaching hospital and trauma center owned by Tenet Healthcare, for over seven years. Ms. Haynes has also served as COO of George Washington Unviersity Hospital and Capitol Hill Hospital, both in Washington, D.C. She serves on the boards of the Health Research & Educational Trust and the American Hospital Association.
Patricia Hemingway Hall. As president and CEO of Health Care Service Operation, Ms. Hemingway Hall oversees the operations of the nation's largest customer-owned health insurer and fourth largest insurer overall. HCSC, which operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, serves more than 12 million members and 18,000 employees. Ms. Hemingway Hall has led HCSC through an acquisition of TMG Health, an industry-leading third-party administrator of government business, and an acquisition of MEDecision, a health information technology company.
Mary Kay Henry. For 29 years, Ms. Henry has represented healthcare workers through her work with the Service Employees International Union, of which she was elected international president in May 2010. She is the first woman to lead the union. During her work with SEIU, she helped pioneer the organization's use of card check agreements, non-traditional collective bargaining agreements, comprehensive campaigns and system-wide healthcare organizing strategies. She is also a labor adviser to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Catholic Health Care & Work Subcommittee and a founding member of SEIU's gay and lesbian Lavender Caucus.
Cathryn Hibbs. Ms. Hibbs is CEO of Deaconess Hospital in Oklahoma City. Prior to her appointment at Deaconess, she was a division vice president of operations for Community Health Systems. Ms. Hibbs has held many hospital leadership roles, including serving as the CEO for several hospitals in several states with both CHS and HCA. She also served as COO for St. Mary's Hospital in Euclid, Okla.
Constance A. Howes. Ms. Howes is president and CEO of Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island in Providence, R.I., which specializes in the care of women and newborns. Previously she served as executive vice president and COO of Women & Infants and was formerly vice president and general counsel for Care New England. Among her executive roles, she served as a past chair of American Hospital Association’s Maternal Child Health Governing Council, past president of the Sexual Assault & Trauma Resource Center of Rhode Island and past vice chair of the National Conference for Community and Justice. She is active with the Council of Women and Infants Specialty Hospitals.
Susan Humphrey-Barnett. Ms. Humphrey-Barnett is the area operations administration for the Providence Health & Services Alaska. In her current role, she oversees a wide range of Providence facilities and programs, including long-term care for Kodiak Medical Center, Valdez Medical Center, Seward Medical Center and many others. She began work at Providence in 1991 and previously served as commissioner of the Alaska Department of Corrections. Before being named to her current position, she served Providence Alaska Medical Center as director of mental health services, assistant administrator of mental health services and assistant administrator for managed health and physician integration.
Karen Ignani. Ms. Ignagni has served as the president of America's Health Insurance Plans since 1993. In her current position, she lobbies politicians on behalf of American insurance companies and is often mentioned as one of the most effective lobbyists and most powerful people in healthcare. In 2003, when the American Association of Health Plans merged with the Health Insurance of America to become America's Health Insurance Plans, Ms. Ignagni was chosen as president and CEO. She has written many articles on healthcare policy issues and has been published in The New York Times, USA Today and the New England Journal of Medicine, among others.
Catherine A. Jacobson. Currently serving as the CFO and treasurer at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Ms. Jacobson previously served as vice president for program evaluation, assistant to the president and chief compliance officer since beginning at Rush in 1996. Ms. Jacobson has been national chair for the Healthcare Financial Management Association.
Deborah Carey Johnson, RN. Ms. Johnson is president and CEO of Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. She worked her way up the ladder at EMMC, starting as a staff nurse in the critical care unit before assuming her current role as president and CEO. Ms. Johnson was president of the Organization of Maine Nurse Executives from 1990-1992 and has served on several boards, including the Maine Hospital Association, the American Heart Association Penobscot Division and the United Way of Eastern Maine. Ms. Johnson is also an executive vice president of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems.
Donna Katen-Bahensky. Ms. Katen-Bahensky is president and CEO of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison. Before coming to the University of Wisconsin, she held numerous executive positions at health systems across the country, including the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Iowa Health Care in Iowa City, Iowa. She is also currently a member of the administrative board of the Council of Teaching Hospitals of the Association of American Medical Colleges. She was also instrumental in establishing the first Iowa Women's Leadership Conference.
Sister Carol Keehan. Sister Keehan is the ninth president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, a position she assumed in Oct. 2005. She is responsible for all association operations, both in its St. Louis and Washington, D.C., offices. CHA represents 1,200 facilities and systems nationwide. Sister Keehan has been an active voice during healthcare reform, advocating for universal healthcare, including coverage of immigrants.
Jane Keller. Ms. Keller is the CEO and chief nursing officer for the Indiana Orthopedic Hospital in Indianapolis, where she works with the board of managers to create and implement the hospital's strategic plan and develops and maintains a positive image of the hospital. She serves as the development chair for Indiana’s Arthritis Foundation and is an active member of its board of directors. Ms. Keller started at OrthoIndy, the group that owns IOH, as the executive director/nursing director of surgery centers. Ms. Keller works closely with John Martin, CEO of OrthoIndy, to make sure the two groups are following similar paths.
Mary Jo Lewis. Ms. Lewis is the new CEO at Sumner Regional Health Systems in Gallatin, Tenn. She previously served 11 years as CEO of Jackson Purchase Medical Center in Mayfield, Ky. During Ms. Lewis' tenure at Jackson Purchase, the 107-bed hospital received exemplary scores in patient satisfaction and was recognized as one of Thomas Reuters 100 Top Hospitals. Ms. Lewis earned her master's degree in finance from Benedictine University in Lisle, Ill.
Roberta Luskin-Hawk, MD. Dr. Luskin-Hawk, an infectious disease specialist, became CEO of 321-bed Saint Joseph Hospital of Chicago, part of nine-hospital Resurrection Health Care, in Aug. 2009. Founded in 1868, Saint Joseph Hospital was rated among the top U.S. hospitals for stroke care and pulmonary services by HealthGrades. Dr. Luskin-Hawk co-founded one of Chicago's first inpatient HIV units at Saint Joseph in 1987 and in 1989 established the AIDS Research Alliance Chicago, an independent, non-profit clinical research consortium.
Sally A. Mason Boemer. As senior vice president for finance, Ms. Mason Boemer has improved collections, shepherded payor contracts and organized cost-cutting teams at Massachusetts General Hospital. She started at Massachusetts General in 1993 in an administrative fellowship, an educational program that allowed her to rotate through the hospital's entire operations and finance departments. In May, the hospital was $4.2 million ahead of budget.
Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD. Dr. Nabel, a cardiologist, became president of Brigham and Women's and Faulkner Hospitals in Boston in Jan. 2010. The 750-bed hospital is one of two non-university recipients of research funding from the National Institutes of Health for the past 10 years. She was previously director of the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and is a nationally recognized scholar, having authored 250 publications.
Sister Mary Norberta. Sister Norberta is president and CEO of St. Joseph Healthcare and St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor, Maine. She began her career as one of the first-ever pediatric nurses at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She has held a number of positions including a faculty appointment at Harvard Medical School and Boston College Graduate School of Nursing. Sister Norberta was appointed associate executive director of St. Joseph Hospital in 1980 and became CEO in 1982. In 1995, she helped establish the Maine Health Alliance, a group of eight small and mid-sized hospitals.
Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, M.D. Dr. Pescovitz is the first woman to serve as CEO of the University of Michigan Health System, which includes the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers, the U-M Medical School and the clinical services of the U-M School of Nursing. As CEO of UMHS, she is responsible for oversight of $3 billion in revenue and a Medical School with more than $445 million in NIH funding. She previously oversaw research at Indiana University's medical school and served as president and CEO of Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. She took over as leader of University of Michigan Health System in May 2009.
Bonnie Phipps. Ms. Phipps is the president and CEO of St. Agnes Healthcare in Baltimore, as well as the Baltimore/DC Ministry Market Leader for Ascension Health. She provides strategic and operational leadership for St. Agnes Healthcare while promoting alignment among health ministries in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., market. Prior to joining St. Agnes, Ms. Phipps served as president and CEO of Saint Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta and president and CEO of PROMINA Health System. A certified public accountant and certified managed care professional, Ms. Phipps was inducted into the Georgia State University Business Hall of Fame in 2005.
Karen Poole. Ms. Poole is currently serving as vice president and COO of the Boca Raton (Fla.) Community Hospital and has more than 30 years of experience in healthcare operations. She has held numerous hospital executive positions and has served as a healthcare advisor and led various facility improvement initiatives. Among her expertise, she is experienced and knowledgeable in general hospital operations, managed care and profit improvement.
Andrea Price. As the new CEO of seven-hospital Mercy Health Partners in Cincinnati, a system she joined less than a year ago as COO. The northwest Ohio healthcare delivery system currently employs 7,300 workers and reports net revenues of nearly $900 million. Ms. Price has held other executive roles at Sparrow Health System in Lansing, Mich., Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Mich., and Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Mimi Robertson. Ms. Robertson serves as president and CEO of Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center and Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver, Colo. She began her role in 2000 and has held leadership positions, including chair, in the Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce. She also serves on the board of the Federation of American Hospitals, having served as chair of the CEO committee and member of the public relations and legislative committees, and the Colorado Health and Hospital Association. Before joining Presbyterian/St. Luke's, Ms. Robertson was CEO of two hospitals in Louisiana: Women's & Children's Hospital in Lafayette and the Medical Center of Southwest Louisiana.
Kathryn Ruscitto. Ms. Ruscitto is the new president and CEO of St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, N.Y. Ms. Ruscitto has worked with St. Joseph's since 2001 in various executive capacities and led a multi-million dollar renovation project and spearheaded the hospital's involvement in a Syracuse revitalization project. Prior to joining St. Joseph's, Ms. Ruscitto worked as senior vice president of strategy for Loretto, the largest provider of eldercare services in upstate New York.
Linda B. Russell. Ms. Russell is the CEO of The Woman's Hospital of Texas, located in Houston, and has seen the hospital grow in both size and prestige since she started in 1994. She was recently appointed to the Judicial Compensation Commission and currently serves on the March of Dimes board of directors, executive board and Texas state executive committee. She also serves on the board of directors for the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center.
Valinda Rutledge. Ms. Rutledge is the CEO of Gaston Memorial Hospital, part of CaroMont Health, in Gastonia, N.C. Ms. Rutledge arrived at CaroMont in fall 2009 from a two-hospital system in Greenville, S.C. Ms. Rutledge has also served as president of St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City, Okla., administrator of Brandon (Fla.) Regional Medical Center and vice president of operations for St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich. She has served as a board member with the United Way in Greenville and chair of Greenville Advantage, the Chamber of Commerce economic development committee.
Christina M. Ryan. Ms. Ryan is CEO of The Women's Hospital in Newburgh, Ind., a specialty hospital that cares for women of all ages. She was recently appointed to the Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality. Ms. Ryan has received many other awards including the Spirit of Women, Next Generation of Women's Health Leaders Award and the Health and Social Services Individual Leadership Award from Leadership Evansville.
Sister Mary Jean Ryan. Sister Mary Jean is the chair and CEO of SSM Health Care in St. Louis, a healthcare system sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary that owns, manages and is affiliated with 15 acute-care hospitals and two nursing homes in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma. Prior to 1986, she held a variety of executive posts at her congregation's hospitals. She serves on the National Commission for Quality Long Term Care and on a variety of boards of directors at the state and national levels.
Rachel A. Seifert. Ms. Seifert serves as executive vice president, secretary and general counsel for Community Health Systems, where she is responsible for the legal aspects of a variety of areas within the company, including acquisitions and development, SEC and corporate governance and litigation and management of the legal department. Prior to joining CHS in 1998, Ms. Seifert worked with Columbia/HCA as a vice president and associate general counsel since 1992. She also spent seven years in private law practice in Dallas and received her JD in 1985 from the University of Maryland.
Peggy Troy. Ms. Troy is the CEO of Children's Hospital and Health System in Milwaukee. Previously, Ms. Troy served as the COO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, Tenn., where she helped to oversee two academic medical centers, four community hospitals, a long-term care facility and over 1,600 licensed beds. Ms. Troy also served as CEO of Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center and filled leadership positions at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
Mary Wakefield, PhD, RN. Dr. Wakefield was named administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration by President Obama in Feb. 2009. HRSA works to fill in the healthcare gaps for people who live outside the economic and medical mainstream, using its $7 billion annual budget to expand access to quality healthcare in partnership with healthcare providers. Dr. Wakefield came to HRSA from the University of North Dakota, where she served as associate dean of rural health at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Wakefield is an expert on rural health issues and has served on MedPAC, the National Advisory Council for the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Advisory Committee to HRSA's Office of Rural Health Policy.
Beverly B. Wallace. Ms. Wallace is president of the Shared Services Group for Nashville, Tenn.-based Hospital Corporation of America, a leading provider of healthcare services. She is responsible for overseeing the company's accounts receivable management, the All About Staffing, Financial and Employee Services systems development and implementation, HealthTrust Purchasing Group and managed care contracting for HCA's approximately 200 hospitals. Ms. Wallace joined HCA in 1993, following a recent merger with Galen. She served as CFO for the Nashville and Mid-Atlantic divisions, overseeing hospital financial operations, managed care contracting and physician services. Prior to joining HCA, Ms. Wallace worked with Humana in Florida.
Ellen Zane. Ms. Zane is the president and CEO of Tufts Medical Center in Medford, Mass., as well as the Floating Hospital for Children. She is the first woman to run the hospital in its 210-year history. Ms. Zane also serves as a director of Parexel International, a director of Fiduciary Trust Company and a director of Century Capital Management. As CEO of TMC, she oversees 5,000 physicians, nurses, researchers and other healthcare workers, as well as 450 patient beds. She orchestrated a major turnaround for Trusts-New England Medical Center in 2005, leading the hospital from a loss of around $250 million in total to a robust annual profit.