Up & Comers - 2011

The summer of 2011 brought severe heat, violent storms, a stomach-churning legislative session and a Dow Jones tilt-a-whirl. No wonder we're ready for cooler weather, cooler heads and a fresh perspective.
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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.
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Andrew Bagnall was cruising through college on his way to getting a master's degree in healthcare administration in 1998, but he was missing one thing that most other students in his class already had: real-world experience. Thus, the future up-and-coming hospital CEO took an unpaid internship doing data-mining for the Genesis Health System in Davenport, Iowa, while he finished his master's at nearby St. Ambrose University.
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Dr. Frederick Browne pairs a unique mix of business acumen and research experience in the areas of infectious disease, microbiology and epidemiology for his role as chief medical officer at New Milford (Conn.) Hospital. The 38-year-old received an undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut, a medical degree from American University of the Caribbean, an MBA from the University of New Haven and completed a fellowship in infectious diseases at the Yale School of Medicine before joining the hospital as an infectious diseases physician in 2006.
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Childhood illness may have kept AnneMarie Czyz from her dream of joining other kids on the ski slopes, but it also gave her unusual insight into the power of caring and skilled nursing. After repeated childhood surgeries to remove some benign cysts, it was always nurses who gave her strength and confidence that things would get better for her. By the time Czyz was in ninth grade, she knew she wanted to join them.
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Whether he was a high school student helping to care for his ailing grandfather, an Army reservist preparing the bodies of U.S. service members to return home during Operation Desert Shield/Storm, or the CEO of Daughters of Charity Services of New Orleans grilling steaks and salmon for a leadership team picnic, Michael Griffin has lived the Vincentian philosophy that love requires action—and the belief in the dignity and potential of every human being.
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Jennifer Marion credits exposure to accounting in high school for her career in finance, but it was her interest in not-for-profit healthcare that led her to a major Catholic health system, where she has been finance chief for five years. Marion, 38, joined the Franciscan Alliance in Mishawaka, Ind., in 2000 and after two swift promotions became chief financial officer and senior vice president of finance in 2006, roles she continues to hold.
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Learning isn't just a part of a job title for Tonya Moore. It's a way of life. And she didn't need to look far for the inspiration that encouraged her to funnel that passion into the healthcare field. Moore was a teenager when her mother went back to school for a nursing degree. She specialized in post-partum nursing, and Moore says, “She inspired me by her dedication to her patients, and she had fun stories to tell.”
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I think patients being at the center of everything you do is the mantra.” That is Carrie Owen Plietz's formula for success, and it has shaped much of her 14-year career, helping her land her first CEO role at the age of 36.
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Aric Sharp said the magic words in college when he offered to work without pay as a summer intern, but it was his outstanding work that opened doors for him. Right after Iowa Clinic (Des Moines) CEO C. Edward Brown hired Sharp, Brown gave his unpaid intern a project on an asset-merger transaction. He also gave a paid intern from Duke University an assignment.“The kid from Duke did OK, but he didn't blow my socks off,” Brown says. “But then I saw Aric's work and thought, ‘Oh, God. Now I have to pay him.' ”
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Gretchen Tegethoff has worked her way up through the ranks in the health information technology industry to reach her current position as chief information officer at 339-bed George Washington University Hospital in the nation's capital. She may not stop there.
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While many teens spend their time flipping burgers or cutting lawns for extra cash, Nicholas Tejeda took a different path. Touting his self-created “director of product disbursement” title at his family's pharmacy in Wichita, Kan., he earned more than spending money while delivering prescriptions to customers.“You learn the value of listening to the patients, appreciating that you might be one of the few people they talk to that day,” Tejeda says. “They look to you for delivering more than a pill.”
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Faraaz Yousuf has managed in his short career to gain experience across the country, from the suburbs around the nation's capital to the for-profit hospital capital of Nashville, from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to the West Coast.
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In an exclusive interview, Modern Healthcare reporter Ashok Selvam talks with Aric Sharp, CEO of the Quincy (Ill.) Medical Group and one of this year's Up & Comers, 12 executives all age 40 or younger. Sharp talks about issues involving the acquisition of physician practices by hospitals and health systems, as well as challenges healthcare faces as it moves from a volume-based system to a value-based system.
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Modern Healthcare published a call for nominations to its 25th annual Up & Comers recognition program on May 9. Nominations were accepted through July 8, with a record 202 entries received, almost double last year's total of 103.
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