James Ballinghoff is chief nurse executive of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (Penn Medicine), a role he assumed in December 2022.
He oversees more than 11,000 nurses across the health system’s hospitals along with its home care and ambulatory operations. Dr. Ballinghoff has spent nearly his entire career at Penn Medicine, joining as a staff nurse and nurse manager at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania before moving into director roles in quality improvement and regulatory compliance at Penn Home Care and Hospice Services. He later served as director of critical care and cardiology at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and, beginning in 2012, as chief nursing officer and associate executive director of that hospital.
During his tenure at Penn Presbyterian, he led the hospital to two Magnet re-designations and guided the transition of Penn Medicine’s Level 1 trauma center to the campus. He has also served as assistant dean for clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and as co-chair of the Penn Medicine CNO Council. Dr. Ballinghoff earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and business degrees from La Salle University and his Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.