Ms. Spisso has led UCLA Health since 2016, overseeing all aspects of the academic health system, which includes five hospitals and nearly 300 primary and specialty care clinics throughout Southern California. Under her leadership, UCLA Health has expanded access to care, including the addition of its fifth hospital, West Hills, Calif.-based UCLA West Valley Medical Center, and the 2022 launch of the UCLA Health Homeless Healthcare Collaborative mobile clinic program. She has also directed a significant investment in mental and behavioral health care, including the 2021 acquisition of a hospital being converted into the UCLA Resnick Mental Health Campus, which will expand the system’s psychiatric bed capacity by 61% and is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2026. Ms. Spisso is a proponent of UCLA Health’s “CICARE” framework, which stands for connect, introduce, communicate, ask, respond and exit, aimed at fostering a compassionate and collaborative environment for patients and staff. For 37 consecutive years, UCLA Health has earned a place on U.S. News & World Report‘s “Best Hospitals” honor roll, a distinction reserved for only 20 hospitals or systems out of nearly 5,000 evaluated, and it is ranked No. 1 in both California and Los Angeles for 2026-27. Ms. Spisso was named one of the Los Angeles Business Journal‘s “Women of Influence: Health Care” for 2026.
