Singing in a symphony chorus, caring for a young child and running a 268-bed hospital are all in a day's work for Erin Asprec.

As CEO of Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital, Houston, Asprec, 39, has helped lead a turnaround at Southeast, which once was one of Memorial Hermann Healthcare System's lesser-performing facilities, says Dan Wolterman, president and CEO of the Houston-based system, who nominated Asprec.

“It's just been very impressive. (In) every statistic, she is just a strong, stellar performer,” Wolterman says.

And she's performed well by relying on good communication skills, determination and a focus on outcomes, he says. Asprec was one of the first executives to go through a Memorial Hermann leadership training program in 2003 and 2004, which had her working in the system CEO's office, and she made an impression, Wolterman says. “Erin was outstanding, probably the strongest we've had in that position,” he says.

Asprec's first major leadership role was working as CEO of Memorial Hermann Heart and Vascular Institute-Texas Medical Center, and she has been CEO of Memorial Hermann Southeast since March 2010. (The Southeast hospital shares a Medicare number with two other Memorial Hermann facilities in Houston—Memorial Hermann Northwest and Memorial Hermann Southwest.)

Asprec says she valued her more than five years working at the heart institute on a professional and personal level. Professionally, it was rewarding and she learned her first big lesson about managing: “The work is about people; it isn't about the mechanics” of strategy and operations, she says.

Asprec found it personally rewarding because she suffers from a rare heart condition, giving her a stake in her work. She says her condition, which had her spending a lot of time as a child in hospitals and physicians' offices, and the fact that she's squeamish about blood and her mother is a nurse, led her to pursue healthcare administration as a career. It's where you can make the biggest difference, she says.

Meanwhile, with the help of her husband, her nearby parents and a nanny, Asprec juggles a busy professional life with tending to her child, who's younger than 2 years old, and singing in the Houston Symphony Chorus. “I balance it with having great support,” says Asprec, who has sung with the symphony for seven years.

She also plays the piano and violin, but don't count on ever hearing her perform rock 'n' roll or the many variations of country and blues found in Texas. “I'm a classical kind of gal,” she says.