CHI St. Luke’s Health, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) & Texas Heart Institute (THI) Collaboration: Executive Biographies

Kevin E. Lofton, FACHE

President and Chief Executive Officer, Catholic Health Initiatives

Kevin E. Lofton is president and chief executive officer of Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), one of the nation’s largest health care systems. With revenues of approximately $13 billion, CHI operates 87 hospitals serving urban and rural communities in 18 states and employs approximately 90,000 individuals. Lofton, widely recognized as a national health care leader, is an experienced executive whose background includes top positions in public, university, community and faith-based hospitals.

Lofton joined CHI in February 1998 – first as a regional and then as group vice president responsible for 16 locally based hospital systems with a combined budget of more than $2 million. Lofton also served for four years as the system’s executive vice president and chief operating officer before his appointment in August 2003 as president and chief executive officer.

Before joining CHI, Lofton was the chief executive officer of 908-bed University of Alabama Hospital in Birmingham. He also served as chief executive officer of 515-bed Howard University Hospital, a vital safety net facility in the nation’s capital; and as chief operating officer of 517-bed University Medical Center, Jacksonville, Fla. His background in top leadership positions in so many diverse organizations provides a unique perspective on the problems and challenges facing the nation’s health care system.

In recognition of his leadership and management accomplishments, Lofton has been included in Modern Healthcare magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” for nine consecutive years, including 2013, when he ranked No. 30. He has been included on each of Modern Healthcare’s four biennial listings of the “Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare.” Among other honors, Lofton received the Robert Hudgens Award as the Young Healthcare Executive of the Year in 1993 from the 30,000-member ACHE. In 2007, he was included in a listing of the “Ebony Magazine Power 150: The Most Influential Blacks in America.”

Active with the American Hospital Association (AHA), Lofton served as the 2007 chairman of the organization’s board of directors. Lofton received a Master of Business Administration degree from Georgia State University in Atlanta, and a Bachelor of Science degree in management from Boston University.

Deborah Lee-Eddie, FACHE
Interim Chief Operating Officer, CHI St. Luke’s Health

Deborah Lee-Eddie, FACHE, joined St. Luke’s in mid-November in a dual role as interim chief operating officer of St. Luke’s Health System, and interim president of St. Luke's Medical Center. She has more than a quarter-century of progressively responsible leadership roles at the facility, market and system level in faith-based, nonprofit, public, and academic medical centers. Her background includes experience in both health plans and acute-care delivery. Lee-Eddie served for eight years at Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives as one of five senior vice presidents of operations, reporting to the system chief operating officer. In this role, she shared accountability with local markets in developing strategic plans to achieve system wide strategic goals in key areas of performance, growth, quality and patient safety. With responsibilities over facilities in five states, she oversaw a nearly $4 billion portfolio of four wholly owned market-based systems (MBOs) and three joint-operating agreements encompassing outpatient, acute care, post-acute, residential and physician-practice organizations.

Now focused on interim management and consulting, Lee-Eddie has served in key leadership roles at several large health systems, including interim executive positions with Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., and Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Philadelphia.

Earlier in her career, as senior vice president at Kaiser Health Plan, Lee-Eddie served as the local health plan executive partnering with Permanente Medical Groups to manage the entire continuum of health care for 450,000 lives while simultaneously serving as CEO of two hospitals. Other professional positions included chief administrative officer of the Children’s Hospital at Jackson Memorial Health System in Miami; CEO of Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, Texas; and vice president of Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga, Tenn.

A former president of the National Association of Health Services Executives and a past member of the University of Michigan School of Public Health Dean’s Advisory Board, Lee-Eddie also served as a member of the Board of Overseers and as a national judge for the Malcom Baldridge National Quality Award. She is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives and currently serves on the organization’s Healthcare Consultant’s Forum Committee.

Wayne Keathley
President, CHI St. Luke’s Health/Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center

Wayne Keathley was named President of CHI St. Luke’s Health/Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center on January 1, 2014. As a nationally recognized health care leader, he is leading the Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in the Texas Medical Center and the expansion of the Medical Center to Baylor College of Medicine’s McNair Campus.

Keathley joined Baylor College of Medicine in 2013 as President of the Baylor College of Medicine Medical Center and Health Network. Prior to joining Baylor, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City for nine years.

At Mount Sinai, Mr. Keathley led the hospital's executive and operational functions for The Mount Sinai Hospital main campus and Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens. Under his leadership the Hospital experienced remarkable growth, markedly improved operating and financial performance, and credit strength. It first achieved national ranking as a "Best Hospital" by U.S. News & World Report (ranked 14th) and earned Honor Roll status in 2012. The hospital also gained designation and re-designation as a Magnet Hospital by the American Nurses Credential Center.

He also led Mount Sinai clinical program development through expansion of faculty and physician practices, hospital affiliations, and clinical outreach programs that now serve all boroughs of New York City and the surrounding region. He introduced a community-based diabetes education and outreach program that has been recognized as a "best practices" model by multiple accreditation and advisory organizations.

With more than 25 years of hospital operations experience, he has served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at St. Peter’s Hospital Health Care Services and previously as Vice President for Operations at Lenox Hill Hospital.

Mr. Keathley is actively involved in a number of international healthcare organizations. He serves on the Board of Glocal Healthcare Systems-India, is a Senior Executive Advisor to the Horizons Clinic – The Gambia, Africa and is on the Advisory Board of 24 Access by Stimmt Medical, Mexico, D.F. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tunstall Healthcare US.

He speaks frequently at national forums on health system design, operation and innovation, and the impact of health reform on hospital financial and operating performance. He has sponsored a summit on the implications of health reform for the Latino community. He presently serves as an advisory member to a private enterprise dedicated to improving healthcare access and quality to hospitals in the Dominican Republic. He is particularly interested in improving access to health services in underserved communities.

Mr. Keathley holds a Masters of Public Health, Health Administration from Columbia University - Columbia Business School.

Dr. Paul Klotman
President and Chief Executive Officer, Baylor College of Medicine

Dr. Paul Klotman began serving as president and CEO of Baylor College of Medicine on Sept. 1, 2010.

He received his B.S. degree in 1972 from the University of Michigan and his M.D. from Indiana University in 1976. He completed his medicine and nephrology training at Duke University Medical Center. He stayed at Duke as a faculty member, rising to the rank of Associate Professor of Medicine before moving to the NIH in 1988 where he became Chief of the Molecular Medicine Section in the Laboratory of Developmental Biology.

In 1993, he became Chief of the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory in the NIDR/NIH. In 1994, he moved to Mount Sinai School of Medicine as the Irene and Dr. Arthur M. Fishberg Professor of Medicine and the Chief of the Division of Nephrology. In 2001, he was selected to be the Chair of the Samuel Bronfman Department of Medicine of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

The BCM Board of Trustees named him as the school's new president in July of 2010.

Dr. Klotman's research has been a blend of both basic and clinical research in molecular virology and AIDS pathogenesis. He developed the first small animal model of HIV associated nephropathy using transgenic techniques. Visit the Klotman Lab site.

He is the author of more than 200 publications and he has been a visiting professor and lecturer internationally in the field of HIV pathogenesis. He has been elected to both the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He is on the editorial boards of journals both in the United States and in Europe and he has served on and chaired numerous study sections including those from the NIH, the American Heart Association, the National Kidney Foundation, and the VA research service. He currently leads the Association of Professors of Medicine efforts in improving the training and mentoring of Physician Scientists.

In addition to his laboratory efforts, Dr. Klotman has been an active clinician, teacher, and mentor. Students from his laboratory have won prestigious scientific competitions. He has trained over 50 clinical fellows, postdoctoral fellows, and students in his laboratory since 1984 most of whom are independently funded. Four of his mentees are now chairs of medicine and four others lead major institutes or centers. He has been listed in both Castle Connelly and New York Magazine as one of the region's Best Doctors. And, he was named Physician of the Year by Mount Sinai nurses.

As the Chair of Medicine, he moved the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai to a top tier academic program by expanding the Faculty Practice, increasing basic and clinical research revenues, developing new community projects, and focusing on the educational mission.

Dr. Klotman serves on the scientific advisory boards of biotech, pharmaceutical, and health care companies. He also serves on the board of several companies including those with interests in natural resources and conservation.

At Baylor College of Medicine, he oversees the only private medical school in the Greater Southwest, with research funding of more than $323 million. The college is ranked as one of the top 20 medical schools for research by U.S. News & World Report and is ranked second among all Texas colleges, universities and medical schools in federally financed research expenditures by the National Science Foundation.

Dr. James T. Willerson
President, Texas Heart Institute

James T. Willerson, MD, is the president of the Texas Heart Institute (THI). He is also director of Cardiology Research, co-director of the Cullen Cardiovascular Research Laboratories, and co-director of Vulnerable Plaque Research at THI. Dr. Willerson was appointed president-elect of THI in 2004 and became president and medical director in 2008.

He was president of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston from 2001 to 2008 and was named the Alkek-Williams Distinguished Professor there at the same time. He holds the Edward Randall III Chair in Internal Medicine at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

He is also an adjunct professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is the former chief of Cardiology at St. Luke's Medical Center and the former chief of Medical Services at Memorial Hermann Hospital.

Dr. Willerson is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, where he has been named a distinguished alumnus. He was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where he earned his medical degree and has also been named a distinguished alumnus. He completed his medical and cardiology training as an intern, resident, and research and clinical fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and his training as a clinical associate at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.

He is the former chairman of the National American Heart Association Research Committee and of the NIH Cardiovascular and Renal Study Section. He has received the Award of Merit from the American Heart Association and has served as a member of the board of directors and steering committee of the National American Heart Association. Before coming to The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Dr. Willerson was professor of Medicine and director of the Cardiovascular Division at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, and director and principal investigator of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Specialized Center of Research under a major grant from the NIH. Upon his departure, UT Southwestern Medical School honored Dr. Willerson by establishing the James T. Willerson Distinguished Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine.