John Howser

Lee Ann Liska, MBA, Chief Operating Officer and Interim Hospital President of Vanderbilt University Hospital (VUH), has been chosen to serve as the hospital’s president.

Liska joined VUMC as VUH’s Chief Operating Officer in the Fall of 2020. Liska succeeds Shon Dwyer, MBA, RN. As the hospital’s president, she will report to C. Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Health System Officer for VUMC.

In partnership with operational leaders from across the enterprise, the VUH senior leadership team, clinical department chairs, Patient Care Center and Clinical Service Center directors, Liska is responsible for all aspects of the hospital’s performance, ensuring patient-focused service, quality and safety, recruitment and retention, growth and finance, and innovation throughout the facility.

“I want to thank Ms. Liska for her service as Interim President over the past six months. Lee Ann has demonstrated remarkable leadership and has been a steadying presence as she and her team continue to manage through capacity challenges and other issues facing VUH. I want to welcome her into this critical role on our senior leadership team and look forward to continuing to work closely with her to serve our patients,” Pinson said.

VUH is recognized as Tennessee’s and the Southeast’s top rated adult hospital, receiving accolades from organizations like U.S. News & World Report, Leapfrog, the American Nurses Credentialing Center (Magnet designation) and others for its advanced tertiary care and sustained high performance.

Staffed by approximately 6,000 nurses and other employees, along with Vanderbilt University faculty physicians and more than 1,000 residents and fellows, VUH currently offers 790 beds and 69 operating rooms where more than 40,000 surgical procedures are performed each year. In terms of patient volume, the hospital experiences approximately 12,000 inbound transfers, more than 45,000 discharges, 69,000 Adult Emergency Department visits and more than 5,300 births.

In 2022, plans for a major expansion to VUH were announced, which includes a 15-level patient tower currently under construction that will add, depending on final configuration, approximately 180 beds and 11 more operating rooms, radiology services, multiple specialty clinics, a spacious lobby and new administrative office space.

Liska is a veteran of the health care industry with extensive experience in health systems management. Her experience spans hospital operations, physician practice management and ambulatory services in several academic and community health systems throughout the Midwest and South.

“I have enjoyed my time in the Interim Hospital President position and am honored to serve VUH in the permanent role.  We have an incredible team at VUH, and I would like to thank them for their ongoing support. I look forward to our continued work together to provide excellent care to our patients and support to our care teams and other members of our workforce,” Liska said.

Before joining VUMC, Liska worked in Florida, Georgia and Ohio with large health systems providing operational and strategic leadership in coaching and mentoring senior leaders, executing operational assessments and deliverables, creating a metric-driven dashboard, reducing expenses and consolidating clinical services.

A native of Ohio, Liska earned her Executive Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Cleveland State University. She is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and served as Chair of the ACHE CEO Committee.

She participates in community and civic activities, currently with the American Heart Association in Middle Tennessee. With an extensive history of service to professional and civic organizations before relocating to Nashville, Liska was a board membership on the Augusta Georgia Metro Chamber, American Heart Association and the United Way of Augusta, the YWCA of Cincinnati, United Way of Greater Cincinnati, the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, American Heart Association of Cincinnati, Hoxworth Blood Center, LifeCenter Organ Donor Network, and Xavier University’s Williams College of Business.