Johnese Spisso — UCLA Health, UCLA Hospital System, UCLA Health Sciences

President, UCLA Health; Chief Executive, UCLA Hospital System; Associate Vice Chancellor, UCLA Health Sciences

THE LATEST: In March, UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Westwood ranked No. 6 nationally in Newsweek’s annual World’s Best Hospitals report. That followed July rankings from U.S. News & World Report that placed UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center and UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica first in California and fourth nationally. In January, UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica was redesignated as a magnet organization by the American Nurses Credentialing Center for excellence in health care.
BACKGROUND: In 2016, Spisso was appointed president of UCLA Health, chief executive of UCLA Hospital System and associate vice chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences. She oversees a health system that employs more than 32,000 people. UCLA Health includes four hospitals with more than 670,000 patient visits a year and 180 clinics with more than 2.8 million outpatient visits annually. Industry publication Modern Healthcare named Spisso one of 2019’s top 25 women leaders. Before joining UCLA, Spisso, a registered nurse, spent 20 years as chief health system officer and vice president of medical affairs for the University of Washington in Seattle.
YEARS ON THE LA500: 2
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