24 female hospital and health system CIOs to know

In combination with the publication of 2015's "100 hospital and health system CIOs to know," Becker's Hospital Review would like to highlight the following 24 women CIOs to know.

The list includes CIOs and other executive-level information technology leaders from hospitals and health systems across the country. They have demonstrated excellence in leadership by tackling the challenging world of health IT and innovating during a time of change in the industry.

Leaders were selected through an editorial review process. Nominations were considered.

Note: Leaders cannot pay for inclusion on this list. They are presented in alphabetical order.

Mary Alice Annecharico, RN. Senior Vice President and CIO of Henry Ford Health System (Detroit). Ms. Annecharico has served as senior vice president and CIO of Henry Ford Health System since December 2011. Prior to joining Henry Ford, she served as CIO of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia and University Hospitals in Cleveland. Ms. Annecharico also serves as editor for the peer-reviewed Journal of Health Information Management.

Pamela Arora. Senior Vice President and CIO of Children's Health System of Texas (Dallas). Before assuming her duties as vice president and CIO of Children's Health System of Texas, formerly Children's Medical Center Dallas, Ms. Arora served as CIO of Worcester, Mass.-based UMass Memorial Health Care and Perot Systems, an IT services provider that was acquired by Dell in 2009. Under her leadership, in 2010 Children's Health System of Texas achieved Stage 7 of HIMSS EMR Adoption Model, earned the HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence in 2013 for quality and performance improvement and received the AHIMA Grace Award for excellence in health information management. Additionally, Children's was the first pediatric hospital to connect to the North Texas Accountable Healthcare Partnership HIE.

Jayne Bassler. Senior Vice President and CIO of Florida Hospital (Orlando). Ms. Bassler joined Florida Hospital in January 2000 as assistant vice president of clinical performance improvement, earning a series of progressive promotions until she was appointed to her current role as senior vice president and CIO. Under her leadership, Florida Hospital has been named "Most Wired" three years in a row by Hospital and Health Networks and has reached Stage 6 status on the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model for four hospitals. Prior to Florida Hospital, Ms. Bassler worked for Volusia Medical Center in Orange City, Fla., as director of professional services.

Aurelia G. Boyer, RN. Senior Vice President and CIO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and NYP Healthcare System (New York City). Ms. Boyer originally joined NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in 1993 as a project manager for clinical information systems before being promoted to director in 1996 and to vice president in 1998. She assumed her current role as CIO in 2003, and her responsibilities include overseeing strategic IT direction, managing day-to-day IT operations, establishing technology priorities and making investment decisions.

Bobbie Byrne, MD. Vice President and CIO of Edward-Elmhurst Healthcare (Naperville and Elmhurst, Ill.).Following the completion of the merger between Naperville, Ill.-based Edward Hospital and Elmhurst (Ill.) Healthcare in July 2013, Dr. Byrne was named system vice president and CIO. Since 2009, Dr. Byrne has served in the same capacity for Edward Hospital, a role she maintains today. Before joining Edward Hospital, she served as clinical director of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, an IT developmental nonprofit organization based in Chicago.

Deborah Cancilla. CIO of PinnacleHealth System (Harrisburg, Pa.). Ms. Cancilla joined PinnacleHealth as CIO in 2014 and is spearheading the centralization of the organization's IT system. Prior to joining PinnacleHealth, she was senior vice president and CIO of Grady Health System in Atlanta. In her time there, she moved the system from HIMSS level 1 to level 6 in two years. Ms. Cancilla holds an MBA from Daemen College in Buffalo, N.Y.

Dedra Cantrell, RN. CIO of Emory Healthcare (Atlanta). When Ms. Cantrell was named CIO of Emory in 2000, she became the first woman and the first nurse to hold the position and oversee the IT infrastructure for the entire hospital system, which includes five hospitals, several clinics and physician practices. In her tenure as CIO, Ms. Cantrell led the implementation of the system's EHR and established Emory as one of the first systems to enable worldwide access to the EHR in real time. Ms. Cantrell also currently serves as the associate director for enterprise clinical informatics at Emory's Center for Clinical Informatics and as deputy CIO for the Office of Information Technology at Emory University.

Myra Davis. Senior Vice President of Information Services and CIO of Texas Children's Hospital (Houston). Ms. Davis has served as senior vice president of information services and CIO of Texas Children's Hospital since December 2012. Under her leadership, the hospital earned a designation as a "Most Wired" hospital from Hospitals & Health Networks. The hospital uses an enterprise data warehouse solution to help make EHR data more actionable. Previously, she served for five years as the hospital's vice president of information systems. She earned a master's degree in software engineering from the University of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul, Minn.

Edith Dees. Vice President and CIO of Holy Spirit Health System (Camp Hill, Pa.). Since August 2005, Ms. Dees has served as vice president and CIO of Holy Spirit Health System. Previously, she served as senior vice president and CIO of St. Mary's Health System in Lewiston, Maine. Other prior roles include outsourced consulting, interim IT leadership and IT patient care services manager at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Jocelyn G. DeWitt, PhD. Vice President and CIO of University of Wisconsin Health (Madison). Dr. DeWitt was named vice president and CIO of UW Health in 2012. In this role, she leads the UW Health Information Services Department in reducing redundant work, improving support paths for customers, making information delivery services more efficient and developing strategic plans for IT infrastructure and apps. Dr. DeWitt came to UW Health from University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers in Ann Arbor, where she served as CIO and developed the strategy and funding for a seven-year, $300 million EHR project.

Joy Grosser. Vice President and CIO of UnityPoint Health (West Des Moines, Iowa). Ms. Grosser has served as vice president and CIO of UnityPoint since 2009. Under her leadership, UnityPoint has earned a title as one of the nation's "Most Wired Health Systems" by Hospitals & Health Networks multiple times and implemented a new EHR, medical imaging system, analytics system and a patient portal. Ms. Grosser brings eight years of experience from her role as CIO at the University of California Irvine Health Sciences System. Prior to that, she served in IT leadership roles at Maywood, Ill.-based Loyola University Health System and Kansas City, Mo.-based Health Midwest. Ms. Grosser earned a master's in health administration from Washington University in St. Louis.

Susan Heichert, RN. Senior Vice President and CIO of Allina Health System (Minneapolis). Ms. Heichert has served as senior vice president and CIO of Allina Health System for the last six years. She joined the system in 2004 as hospital clinical systems manager, advancing until stepping into her current role as senior vice president and CIO. Prior to becoming a health system executive, Ms. Heichert worked as a nurse in hospitals in Texas and Minnesota.

Mary Anne Leach. Senior Vice President and CIO of Children's Hospital Colorado (Aurora). Ms. Leach has led Children's Hospital Colorado's IT department since 2007. She has nearly three decades of health IT experience, most recently serving as vice president of clinical applications of Catholic Health Initiatives in Englewood, Colo. She also held director roles at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Superior Consultant Company and IHC Affiliated Services (a prior division of Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health Care). For seven years, Ms. Leach led her own consulting organization, M.A. Leach & Company.

Rose Ann Laureto. CIO of ProMedica (Toledo, Ohio). Ms. Laureto has served as CIO of ProMedica since February 2013. As CIO, she has overseen the system's adoption of an integrated approach to IT products and services as well as led the deployment of Epic as the system's new EHR platform. Ms. Laureto is responsible for a team of 460 people and an operating budget of $150 million.

Virginia A. McFerran. CIO of UCLA Health System and David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (Los Angeles). Appointed as CIO in 2009, Ms. McFerran leads IT development and the distribution of IT-related resources across the David Geffen School of Medicine, the UCLA Faculty Practice Group and the UCLA Hospital System. Ms. McFerran previously served as CIO and department head at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. She has leadership experience from The Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif., The University of Washington in Seattle and Microsoft.

Pamela McNutt. Senior Vice President and CIO of Methodist Health System (Dallas). Ms. McNutt has nearly 30 years of healthcare IT experience, the last 18 of which have been in the role of CIO at Methodist Health System. Prior to joining the system in 1993, she worked for Hermann Memorial Hospital in Houston, Texas. She is a fellow of both HIMSS and CHIME, and currently serves on the CHIME board of trustees and is a former director for the HIMSS national board.

Jayashree Raman. Vice President and CIO of Cooper University Health Care (Camden, N.J.). Ms. Raman was appointed CIO of Cooper University Healthcare in 2012. Prior to joining Cooper, Ms. Raman served as vice president of healthcare strategy and CIO for Stanley Healthcare Solutions for two years. She also served as vice president and CIO of The Reading (Pa.) Hospital and Medical Center from 1997 to 2010, where she established the medical center's core information technology infrastructure.

Stephanie Reel. CIO and Vice Provost for IT at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore). In addition to her roles at Johns Hopkins University, Ms. Reel has served as vice president of information services for Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore since 1994. She is a member of several professional organizations, including the Healthcare Information Systems Executive Association, CHIME, HIMSS and the Healthcare Advisory Council. Additionally, Ms. Reel was appointed to President Barack Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in 2009.

Linda Reed, RN. Vice President and CIO of Atlantic Health (Morristown, N.J.). Ms. Reed is vice president of behavioral and integrative medicine and CIO of Atlantic Health, a four-hospital health system, where she is responsible for planning, acquiring and implementing information technology and telecommunications. Before joining Atlantic Health, Ms. Reed was with Marlton, N.J.-based Virtua Health, also serving as vice president and CIO. She also holds an MBA from Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania.

Maria Russo. CIO of Tanner Health System (Carrollton, Ga.). Ms. Russo has served as Tanner Health System's senior vice president and CIO since 2011, where she provides leadership, strategic direction and oversight for all aspects of the system's information systems department. Prior to joining Tanner, Ms. Russo served as vice president and CIO of Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's Healthcare in Louisville, Ky.

Sue Schade. CIO of University of Michigan Health System (Ann Arbor). Ms. Schade was recently honored with the CHIME-HIMSS 2014 John E. Gall Jr. CIO of the Year Award for her work at UMHS. She stepped into the lead IT role at the system in 2012, right after it launched MiChart, its EHR. In addition to continuing the transition to MiChart, Ms. Schade has helped UMHS reach Stage 6 on the HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model. She came to UMHS from Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital, where she served as CIO for 12 years. She is currently a member of the CHIME Policy Steering Committee, the Michigan Hospital Association Health IT Strategy Committee and Great Lakes Health Connect. Ms. Schade earned an MBA from Illinois Benedictine College in Lisle.

Rebecca Sykes. Senior Vice President, Resource Management and CIO of Mercy Health (Cincinnati). Ms. Sykes has served as senior vice president and CIO of Mercy Health, formerly known as Catholic Health Partners, since 1999. Under her leadership, Mercy Health consolidated the IT function across its seven regional markets in 2011, launched a $400 million Epic EHR project and started using data for population health management. She previously served as director of information systems for TriHealth/Medicus in Cincinnati and corporate manager of health information/medical records at Bethesda Hospital in Cincinnati.

Phyllis Teater. Associate Vice President of Health Sciences and CIO of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (Columbus). After serving as the hospital's interim CEO, Ms. Teater was named CIO of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in October 2010. Under her leadership, Wexner achieved HIMSS Analytics Stage 7. In 2011, she led a team to train 14,000 people on the Epic Enterprise Intelligence platform. After training, Wexner was able to go live with a new, system-wide conversion and installation in one day. Ms. Teater first joined the hospital in 1991. She earned an MBA in management of information systems from Ohio State University.

Karen Thomas. Senior Vice President and CIO of Main Line Health (Bryn Mawr, Pa.). As senior vice president and CIO, Ms. Thomas is responsible for the planning, implementation and support for information services of Main Line Health, including telecommunications and audiovisual support for the system. Prior to joining Main Line Health, Ms. Thomas served as director of patient and physician systems for Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia.

 

 

Correction: An earlier version of this list incorrectly listed Dana Moore, Senior Vice President and CIO of Centura Health, as a female CIO to know. Mr. Moore has since been removed from the list. Additionally, the list incorrectly stated Florida Hospital reached HIMSS Stage 7 when, in fact, the hospital actually received the HIMSS Stage 6 EMR Award. We regret these errors.

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